BEHAVIORAL ACTIVATION AS AN ALTERNATIVE TREATMENT APPROACH FOR LATINOS WITH DEPRESSION

Depression is one of the most com-monly diagnosed psychological health problems and a major cause of disabil-ity in this country. Very little attention, however, has been given to depression among Latinos. To address this issue, the authors provide a review of the lit-erature on psychosocial factors that contribute to depression within the Latino adult population. In addition, the authors argue that Behavioral Acti-vation (BA), as an alternative treatment approach, may be as effective as, if not more effective than, Cognitive Behav-ioral Therapy because of BA’s focus on environmental conditions and behavior change rather than beliefs and underly-ing attitudes. More importantly, compo-nents of BA can be easily adapted to accommodate specific Latino cultural values. Its application is illustrated in a case example