Prescriptions of Feeling
Good: The New Mood Therapy have been shown to
help treat depression |
Dr Carolyn DeMarco's patient was
depressed. And nothing she tried seemed to help. "No
medication was working, and the patient had tried every
drug available," she says.
The Winlaw, BC, physician decided
to try a new tactic: she gave him a copy of Feeling
Good: The New Mood Therapy, by the Stanford University
psychiatrist David Burns. The patient read the book,
completed the exercises in the workbook and, somewhat
miraculously, began to get better.
Similar storylines have been playing
out across Canada for years, and new research is increasingly
showing the therapeutic value of a good book.
READING
RESEARCH
Evidence-based research on bibliotherapy has only recently
begun to take off. Depression and eating disorders are
both indications for a book Rx, according to two studies
published last year in Behaviour Research and Therapy.
In one, assigning copies of Feeling Good: The New
Mood Therapy to adolescents at high risk for depression
actually outperformed other methods of psychological
intervention, such as group therapy. In the other, Swedish
youth with bulimia showed positive outcomes six months
after reading Overcoming Binge Eating by British
psychiatrist Christopher Fairburn.
In Dr DeMarco's experience, bibliotherapy
has been an excellent option for some patients. "So
many patients simply can't afford psychologists," she
explains, "and there is still a huge lack of psychiatrists,
especially for patients coming from rural areas."
In fact, recent clinical guidelines
for family physicians on depressive disorders, issued
by the Canadian Network for Mood and Anxiety Treatments,
advocate the use of bibliotherapy as an adjunct or alternative
treatment for patients without access to psychotherapy.
But Dr DeMarco, who wrote her own
self-help book in 1997, Take Charge of Your Body,
stresses that the use of bibliotherapy and conventional
treatment, like antidepressants, is "never either-or."
NATIONAL
SOLUTION
Given its proven effectiveness, is a national bibliotherapy
strategy feasible? Wales may provide a model for any
potential Canadian mental health bibliotherapy plans.
In Wales, where a familiar-sounding shortage of specialists
plagues the mental health system, psychologist Neil
Frude has pioneered a veritable bibliotherapy movement.
In 2003, Dr Frude began a government-funded
pilot project with 200 Cardiff GP practices as his test
subjects. Doctors were given a list of 33 books to help
patients learn cognitive behavioural therapy for 20
different conditions; Dr Frude struck a deal with public
libraries to get them to honour special book prescriptions
written by physicians, with extra-long loan times.
While a handful of doctors may
have first viewed the scheme with some skepticism, the
project has proven so successful that the pilot was
expanded nationwide in 2005, now called Book Prescription
Wales.
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WEB
EXTRA
LITERARY MEDICINE
Book
Prescription Wales, the government-funded bibliotherapy
program designed by psychologist Neil Frude, recommends
the following 33 books for a variety of conditions.
For more information, visit Book Prescription
Wales http://www.nhsdirect.wales.nhs.uk/small/en/home/healthinformation/
mentalhealth/ bookprescriptionwales
ANGER
Overcoming Irritability and Anger by Will
Davies
Managing Anger by Gael Lindenfield
ANOREXIA
NERVOSA
Breaking Free from Anorexia Nervosa: A Survival
Guide for Families, Friends and Sufferers
by Janet Treasure
Overcoming Anorexia Nervosa by Christopher
Freeman and Peter Cooper
ANXIETY
Overcoming Anxiety by Helen Kennerly
ASSERTIVENESS,
FOR WOMEN
Woman in Your Own Right by Anne Dickson
BEREAVEMENT
You'll Get Over It: Rage of Bereavement
by Virginia Ironside
BINGE-EATING
AND BULIMIA NERVOSA
Bulimia Nervosa and Binge Eating by Peter
Cooper
Overcoming Binge Eating by Christopher
Fairburn
Getting Better Bit(e) by Bit(e): A Survival
Guide for Sufferers of Bulimia Nervosa and Binge
Eating Disorders by Ulrike Schmidt and Janet
Treasure
DEPRESSION
Overcoming Depression by Paul Gilbert
Mind Over Mood by Dennis Greenberger and
Christen Padesky
The Feeling Good Handbook by David Burns
HEAD
INJURIES
Head Injury: A Practical Guide by Trevor
J Powell
HEALTH
ANXIETY
Stop Worrying about your Health by George
D Zgourides
MANIC
DEPRESSION
Overcoming Mood Swings by Jan Scott
OBSESSIONS
AND COMPULSIONS
Overcoming Obsessive Compulsive Disorder
by David Veale and Robert Willson
Obsessive Compulsive Disorder by Frederick
Toates and Olga Coschug-Toates
Understanding Obsessions and Compulsions
by Frank Tallis
PANIC
Overcoming Panic by Derrick Silove
Panic Attacks by Christine Ingham
POST-TRAUMATIC
STRESS DISORDER AND TRAUMA
Overcoming Traumatic Stress by Claudia
Herbert and Ann Wetmore
SELF
ESTEEM
Overcoming Low Self Esteem by Melanie Fennell
The Feeling Good Handbook by David Burns
Self Esteem for Women by Lynda Field
Self Esteem: Simple Steps to Develop Self Reliance
and Perseverance by Gael Lindenfield
10 Days to Great Self Esteem by David Burns
SURVIVORS
OF CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE
Breaking Free: Help for Survivors of Child
Sexual Abuse by Carolyn Ainscough and Kay
Toon
The Courage to Heal: A Guide for Women Survivors
of Child Sexual Abuse by Ellen Bass and Laura
Davis
SOCIAL
ANXIETY AND SOCIAL PHOBIA
Overcoming Social Anxiety and Shyness by
Gillian Butler
STRESS
The Relaxation and Stress Reduction Workbook
(5th Edition) by Martha David, Elizabeth Robbins
Eshelman, and Matthew McKay
WORRY
How to Stop Worrying by Frank Tallis
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