Millions of people struggle with their health. Whether it is depression, anxiety, PTSD, ADHD, or any number of other conditions, it can seem overwhelming and difficult to get through. For many people, spending time in therapy has been shown to be helpful.

Some people, however, say that this type of psychotherapy, often called talk therapy or cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), does not provide real benefits and instead prefer things like medication.

Well, a new study published in the journal Translational Psychiatry indicates that psychotherapy can not only help people with their symptoms, but it can actually change the physical structure of the brain in a very positive way.

The study had just 30 participants, so it does need to be replicated with larger numbers. Those participants had acute depression, and they had their brains scanned using a structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) machine. After the MRI was completed to give a baseline of their brain structure, they would go through 20 sessions of CBT and have the MRI repeated.

The gray matter in both the right anterior hippocampus and the left amygdala had significant increases in the second MRI.

In addition to the scans, the researchers performed clinical interviews with the patients. These interviews indicated that those who had the biggest increases in gray matter reported the most reduction in emotional dysregulation. By the end of the study, 19 of the 30 participants had very few symptoms of acute depression.

This is the first study to show that CBT is not only an effective way to help people to manage their emotions and mental health, but that it actually produces a measurable benefit on the physical structure of the brain. Professor Ronny Redlich is an author of the study, and he heads the Department of Biological and Clinical Psychology at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg (MLU). He spoke with IFLScience about the results, saying:

“The study is of high quality and the results are statistically very robust. The fact that psychotherapy changes brain function is still easy for most people to understand. However, the fact that it has such a strong positive effect on the brain structure, specifically the gray matter, was a pleasant surprise in this extent. This is generally a milestone: psychotherapy is not only mental, but also affects our brain. And it does so very strongly. Although we did not directly compare it with psychotropic drugs, I believe the effects are probably similarly strong.”

The team that worked on the study is hopeful that these results will convince both people in the medical community and those experiencing mental health that psychotherapy and CBT can offer real, tangible benefits. While the study does not suggest that these treatments are better or worse than medication or other options, it does show that it can provide real results. Redlich went on to say:

“It’s only a small step, but I think the potential for a more forward-looking and objective view of psychotherapy among the general population is huge: psychotherapy is not just a bit of talking, but rather a structured and effective treatment for mental disorders. Mental disorders are not a ‘weakness’ of the person, but can also be attributed to physical changes, especially in the brain. Psychotherapy is able to ‘repair’ these brain connections so that, in best case scenario, the patient feels better afterwards. I think this perspective helps many patients, takes the blame off the person themselves, and destigmatizes both mental disorders and psychotherapy.”

Showing that psychotherapy is able to change the actual gray matter in the brain is a milestone. It is even more impressive that the changes were measurable after just 20 therapy sessions. Hopefully additional studies will look at the longer term effects of CBT so that more people can be helped by this important type of therapy.

If you think that’s impressive, check out this story about a “goldmine” of lithium that was found in the U.S. that could completely change the EV battery game.