Cognitive Behavioral Analysis System of Psychotherapy

The cognitive behavioral analysis system of psychotherapy (CBASP) is a talking therapy, a synthesis of interpersonal, cognitive and behavioral therapies, developed by James P. McCullough Jr. of Virginia Commonwealth University specifically for treating chronic depression across its DSM-IV varieties. McCullough describes chronic depression, meaning a depressive disorder in adults lasting continuously for two years or more, or one year continuously in adolescents, particularly the early-onset type beginning in adolescence, as essentially a refractory mood disorder arising from traumatic experiences or interpersonal psychological insults inflicted by a patient's significant others in the nuclear or extended family.