Future Thinking Interventions in Depression: Does Behaviour Change? Does it Need To? And How Should We Assess If It Does?

Future thinking interventions can influence the phenomenology, subjective judgments, and perceived rewards of imagined future events, and may alleviate symptoms of depression. However, do they also alter behavioural activation in depression as one might expect? In this commentary, I critically review studies on changes in specific behaviours and general behavioural activation in depression resulting from future thinking interventions, as well as behavioural activation therapy. I question the necessity of changing behaviour and discuss several ways in which future thinking interventions might disrupt core depressive psychopathology, including updating generalised outcome expectancies, reducing cognitive immunisation, and increasing the perception of future possibilities. Finally, I offer suggestions for how future thinking interventions might more effectively test the mechanisms through which they alleviate depression.