BACP, Person Centred Therapy Scotland, the Highland Users Group and the Scottish Transactional Analysis Association are challenging new guidelines from the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) which exclude counselling as a treatment for depression. Despite good evidence and lobbying by lead mental health professionals and academics in Scotland, the published guidelines assert that: ‘There is insufficient evidence on which to base a recommendation for counselling.’

The new SIGN guidelines exclude randomised controlled trial evidence showing that counselling is one of the best and most effective treatment interventions for depression.¹ As a result they are now inconsistent with the updated UK NICE guidelines for the treatment of depression, which do include a recommendation for counselling.

Dr Lynne Gabriel, Chair of BACP, said: ‘Any reasonable person must be alarmed to discover a geographical split in the interpretation of scientific evidence. There are also many clients and patients suffering from depression who choose to receive counselling from the NHS in Scotland who will be made to suffer further. The recession is already increasing rates of job insecurity, low pay and redundancy, which are all known to be risk factors for depression, and this is likely to cause yet more distress within families and marriages. NHS counsellors are skilled and experienced in helping people cope with such problems. By eliminating counselling from the guidelines, counselling services in Scotland may well be decommissioned, and we risk losing a trained workforce at a time when economic uncertainty means they are needed most.’

BACP

1. King M, Sibbald B, Ward E et al. HTA. 2000; 4(19).