Want to know how talk therapy works when the patient suddenly is so down she can’t get up?

This column is a clear illustration of the value of talk therapy because you get to listen to the patient-physician conversation.

Talk therapy is under-rated now because medications have taken center stage in psychiatry and because health plan reimbursement favors medication. It saves plans money.

Patients who have serious depression, bipolar disorder or other psychiatric diagnoses benefit from both.

Below is an excerpt which summarizes the science of talk therapy. Check out the conversation between doctor and patient by going to The New York Times.

The New York Times

Author Jeff Deitz, M.D., is a psychiatrist and psychoanalyst in Connecticut and New York City. He teaches at the Beth Israel Medical Center.

“And unlike medications for depression, which take weeks to become effective while symptoms abate gradually, her immediate reaction to psychotherapy speaks to a different mechanism of action and confirms what neuroscientists are demonstrating: social interactions, including psychotherapy, turn on brain circuits instantaneously. Why? Because humans are social animals; we’re wired to connect.

“Neurons in the premotor cortex and the somatosensory cortex — mirror neurons, as they’re known — fire in synchrony with the behavior and feelings of others, attuning people’s brains. When a person sees someone smiling, some of the observer’s smile-controlling neurons are turned on, too. Or when someone winces in pain, the corresponding sensory neurons in the observer fire away in sympathy.

“The premotor cortex, command central with respect to voluntary behaviors, is where decisions to act are made. Evolutionarily, it’s a tremendous advantage to learn coping through observation and imitation — mirror neurons’ raison d’être — whether learning to harness fire to deal with the elements, or learning to self-regulate, self-soothe or self-reflect, or any of the other myriad coping skills that modulate mood.”

Source: New York Times, July 1, 2010