Steven D. Hollon (born 1949) is an American psychologist, academic and researcher. He is the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of Psychology at Vanderbilt University.
Hollon's research focuses on the treatment and prevention of depression with a particular emphasis on cognitive therapy in comparison to antidepressant medications. His research (mostly in collaboration with Robert J. DeRubeis) has found that cognitive therapy is as efficacious and more enduring than antidepressant medications in the treatment of unipolar depression.DeRubeis, R. J., Siegle, G. J., & Hollon, S. D. (2008). Cognitive therapy versus medication for depressions: Treatment outcomes and neural mechanisms. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 9(10), 788–796. https://doi.org/10.1038/nrn2345 That cognitive therapy has an enduring effect is perhaps his major contribution; studies dating to the early 1980s have found that treating patients with cognitive therapy cuts risk for relapse by more than half following relative to medication treatment following treatment termination and is at least as efficacious as keeping patients on antidepressant medications.Hollon, S. D., Thase, M. E., & Markowitz, J. C. (2002). Treatment and prevention of depression. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 3(2), 39–77. https://doi.org/10.1111/1529-1006.00008 He has over 300 publications and has mentored over 20 doctoral and post-doctoral advisees.
Early life Hollon was born in 1949 in Washington DC. He received a B.A. in Psychology and Anthropology in 1971 from George Washington University. He completed his graduate training at the Florida State University where he worked with Jack Hokanson. He received a M.Sc. in Clinical Psychology in 1974 and a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology in 1977. It was in graduate school that he developed his interest in the nature and treatment of depression with a particular emphasis on work by Aaron T. Beck (cognitive theory and therapy), Martin E. P. Seligman (learned helplessness), and Gerald Klerman (controlled clinical trials).
After his third year in graduate school with dissertation data in hand, Hollon followed his future wife Judy Garber to Philadelphia where she had gone earlier that year to work with Martin Seligman (an informal mentor to Hollon as well). Hollon got the opportunity to work with Aaron T. Beck, the progenitor of cognitive therapy, who became his primary mentor. The following year, Hollon went through the psychiatric residency program at University of Pennsylvania to broaden his exposure to other interventions. During his time in Philadelphia, his primary mentor Beck introduced him to his third mentor Gerald Klerman, a major proponent of controlled clinical trials.
Career Hollon joined the faculty at the University of Minnesota as an assistant professor of psychology in 1977 and was promoted with tenure to the rank of associate professor three years later in 1980. Hollon connected early with Robert DeRubeis and has collaborated with him on multiple studies over the course of his career. In 1985, Hollon moved to Vanderbilt University where he was promoted to Full Professor in 1988. In 2011, he was named the Gertrude Conaway Vanderbilt Professor of Psychology.
He is the former Editor of Cognitive Therapy and Research and Associate Editor of the Journal of Abnormal Psychology. He is a past President of Association for Behavioral and Cognitive Therapies (ABCT), the Society for a Science of Clinical Psychology (SSCP), and the first chair of the steering committee advising the American Psychological Association on clinical practice guidelines.Hollon, S. D., Areán, P. A., Craske, M. G., Crawford, K. A., Kivlahan, D. R., Magnavita, J. J., Ollendick, T. H., Sexton, T. L., Spring, B., Bufka, L. F., Galper, D. G., & Kurtzman, H. (2014). Development of clinical practice guidelines. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 10, 213-241.http://doi:10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-050212-185529
Research interests Since the beginning of his career, Hollon's work has been focused on depression and its treatment. His work extends from basic psychopathology to prevention and treatment. When he moved to Philadelphia to work with Beck in the mid-1970s, he joined a group that was studying the effectiveness of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for the treatment of depression. Beck and colleagues, Augustus John Rush and Maria Kovacs completed the first controlled trial to suggest that a psychosocial intervention could at least hold its own with medicationsRush, A. J., Beck, A. T., Kovacs, M., & Hollon, S. D. (1977). Comparative efficacy of cognitive therapy and pharmacotherapy in the treatment of depressed outpatients. Cognitive Therapy and Research, 1, 17 37. http://doi:10.1007/BF01173502 and had an enduring effect that medications simply lacked.Kovacs, M., Rush, A. J., Beck, A. T., & Hollon, S. D. (1981). Depressed outpatients treated with cognitive therapy or pharmacotherapy: A one year follow up. Archives of General Psychiatry, 38, 33 39. http://doi:10.1001/archpsyc.1981.01780260035003
After he moved to Minnesota, he and DeRubeis conducted a clinical trial that again showed that CBT was as efficacious as adequately implemented antidepressant medicationsHollon, S. D., DeRubeis, R. J., Evans, M. D., Wiemer, M. J., Garvey, M. J., Grove, W. M., & Tuason, V. B. (1992). Cognitive therapy and pharmacotherapy for depression: Singly and in combination. Archives of General Psychiatry, 49, 774-781. https://doi.org/10.1016/S096-1849(05)80149-0 and once again more enduring.Evans, M. D., Hollon, S. D., DeRubeis, R. J., Piasecki, J. M., Grove, W. M., Garvey, M. J., & Tuason, V. B. (1992). Differential relapse following cognitive therapy and pharmacotherapy for depression. Archives of General Psychiatry, 49, 802-808. http://doi:10.1001/archpsy.1992.01820100046009 Continuing to work together, Hollon and DeRubeis conducted two more randomized controlled trials. The first showed that CBT is as efficacious as antidepressant medications for even more severe depressionsDeRubeis, R. J., Hollon, S. D., Amsterdam, J. D., Shelton, R. C., Young, P. R., Salomon, R. M., O’Reardon, J. P., Lovett, M. L., Gladis, M. M., Brown, L. L. Ph.D., & Gallop, R. (2005). Cognitive therapy vs. medications in the treatment of moderate to severe depression. Archives of General Psychiatry, 62, 409-416. http://doi:10.1001/archpsyc.62.4.409 and once again more enduring.Hollon, S. D., DeRubeis, R. J., Shelton, R. C., Amsterdam, J. D., Salomon, R. M., O’Reardon, J. P., Lovett, M. L., Young, P. R., Haman, K. L., Freeman, B. B., & Gallop, R. (2005). Prevention of relapse following cognitive therapy versus medications in moderate to severe depression. Archives of General Psychiatry, 62, 417-422. http://doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2014.1054 The second trial found that adding CBT to medications enhanced recovery in a moderated fashion (only non-chronic patients with more severe depressions benefitted)Hollon, S. D., DeRubeis, R. J., Fawcett, J., Amsterdam, J. D., Shelton, R. C., Zajecka, J., Young, P. R., Gallop, R. (2014). Effect of cognitive therapy with antidepressant medications vs antidepressants alone on the rate of recovery in major depressive disorder: A randomized clinical trial. JAMA Psychiatry, 71(10), 1157-1164. http://doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2014.1054 although at the expense of CBT's enduring effect.DeRubeis, R. J., Zajecka, J., Shelton, R. C., Amsterdam, J. D., Fawcett, J., Xu, C., Young, P. R., Gallop, R., & Hollon, S. D. (2020). Prevention of recurrence after recovery from a major depressive episode with antidepressant medication alone or in combination with cognitive behavior therapy: Phase 2 of a 2-phase randomized clinical trial. JAMA Psychiatry, 77(3), 237-245. http://doi:10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2019.3900 Hollon has contributed to four of the seven trials (out of eight total) that have found prior cognitive therapy has an enduring effect relative to antidepressant medications following treatment termination.Cuijpers, P., Hollon, S. D., van Straten, A., Bockting, C., Berking, M., & Andersson, G. (2013). Does cognitive behavior therapy have an enduring effect that is superior to keeping patients on continuation pharmacotherapy? BMJ Open, 3(4). http://doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2012-002542
In 2006, Hollon joined with Sona Dimidjian in the aftermath of Neil Jacobson’s untimely death to bring a placebo-controlled trial to closure that found behavioral activation as efficacious as medicationsDimidjian, S., Hollon, S. D., Dobson, K. S., Schmaling, K. B., Kohlenberg, R. J., Addis, M. E., Gallop, R., McGlinchey, J. B., Markley, D. K., Gollan, J. K., Atkins, D. C., Dunner, D. L., & Jacobson, N. S. (2006). Behavioral activation, cognitive therapy, and antidepressant medication in the acute treatment of major depression. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 74, 658-670. https://doi:10.1037/0022-006X.74.4.658 and as enduring as CBT.Dobson, K. S., Hollon, S. D., Dimidjian, S., Schmaling, K. B., Kohlenberg, R. J., Gallop, R. J., Rizvi, S. L., Gollan, J. K., Dunner, D. L., & Jacobson, N. S. (2008). Randomized trial of behavioral activation, cognitive therapy, and antidepressant medication in the prevention of relapse and recurrence in major depression. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology. 76, 468-477. https://doi:10.1037/0022-006X.76.3.468 A subsequent trial in rural India conducted by Vikram Patel indicated that a brief 6 to 8 session culturally adapted version of behavioral activation called the Healthy Activity Program (HAP) conducted by non-professional lay counselors was more efficacious than enhanced usual care among depressed patients in primary carePatel, V., Weobong, B., Weiss, H. A., Anand, A., Bhat, B., Katti, B., Dimidjian, S., Araya, R., Hollon, S. D., King, M., Vijayakumar, L., Park, A. L., McDaid, D., Wilson, G. T., Velleman, R., Kirkwood, B. R., & Fairburn, C. G. (2017). The Healthy Activity Program (HAP), a lay counsellor delivered brief psychological treatment for severe depression, in primary care in India: A randomised controlled trial. Lancet, 389(10065), 176-185. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(16)31589-6 with little indication of relapse over the nine months following treatment termination.Weobong, B., Weiss, H. A., McDaid, D., Singla, D. R., Hollon, S. D., Nadkarni, A., Park, A. L., Bhat, B., Katti, B., Anand, A., Dimidjian, S., Araya, R., King, M., Vijayakumar, L., Wilson, G. T., Velleman, R., Kirkwood, B. R., Fairburn, C. G., & Patel, V. (2017). Sustained effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the Healthy Activity Program, a brief psychological treatment for depression delivered by lay counsellors in primary care: Twelve-month follow-up of a randomised controlled trial. PLoS Medicine, 14(9): e1002385. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pmed.1002385
With Cox, Abramson, and Devine, he argued that models of depressive cognitions could be adapted to the study of prejudice and stereotyping, and vice versa. This work provided a foundation to develop effective intervention methods to reduce intergroup biases, adapted from CBT, including the bias habit-breaking training.