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Resumen
La depresión representa un trastorno del estado de ánimo generalizado y devastador. Afecta a más del 21% de la población a lo largo de su vida y puede tener un impacto enorme, tanto en los individuos como en la sociedad. La activación conductual constituye una intervención popular para la depresión y es comúnmente utilizada por los psicólogos a nivel internacional. A pesar de su renombre, los mecanismos cognitivos que sustentan la eficacia de la activación conductual siguen siendo elusivos. Este artículo analiza la literatura sobre esta intervención y se propone una explicación de los mecanismos cognitivos que subyacen a su eficacia terapéutica. En concreto, se argumenta que la activación conductual es eficaz porque aumenta tanto la frecuencia de los resultados en su entorno como la frecuencia de las contingencias de acción-resultado más destacadas, las cuales, de otro modo, podrían estar ausentes debido a una motivación disminuida. A continuación, se discuten las implicaciones clínicas, con referencia a la investigación futura.
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