Beck’s cognitive theory and the role of schemata in depression
Volume I includes a systematic literature review which aimed to synthesise and evaluate all research testing the role of early maladaptive schemas or core beliefs in depression as proposed by cognitive theory. The findings neither prove nor disprove the relationship. The empirical paper aimed to test the association between early maladaptive schemas in depression using a cross-sectional questionnaire design with diagnostic interviews. Early maladaptive schemas were associated with depression, did not moderate the relationship between stress and depression but did partially mediated the relationship between life stress (but not diabetes distress) and depressive symptoms. The findings partially support the role of early maladaptive schemas in depression. The executive summary summarises the systematic literature review and the empirical paper for stakeholders.

Volume II includes the following clinical practice reports (i) a cognitive behavioural and psychodynamic formulation of obsessive compulsive disorder, (ii) a single-case experimental design evaluation of cognitive behavioural therapy for depression, (iii) an evaluation of compliance to depression guidelines, (iv) a cognitive behavioural formulation and intervention for obsessive compulsive disorder, and (v) an abstract summarising an oral report of cognitive behavioural therapy for social anxiety and traumatic brain injury.