CBT Efficacy for Depression More Durable Than Pharmacotherapies

A comprehensive meta-analysis concluded that cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) is effective for depression across different formats, ages, target groups, and settings, and as effective as pharmacotherapies at the short term, but more effective at the longer term. The analysis included 409 trials (518 comparisons) with 52,702 patients. CBT had moderate to large effects compared to control conditions such as care as usual and waitlist, which remained in sensitivity analyses and were still significant at 6–12 month follow-up. CBT was significantly more effective than other psychotherapies, but the difference was small and became non-significant in most sensitivity analyses. The effects of CBT did not differ significantly from those of pharmacotherapies at the short term but were significantly larger at 6-12 month follow-up, although the number of trials was small, and the difference was not significant in all sensitivity analyses. Combined treatment was more effective than pharmacotherapies alone at the short and long term, but it was not more effective than CBT alone at either time point. CBT was also effective as unguided self-help intervention, in institutional settings, and in children and adolescents. Depression is highly prevalent. CBT is by far the most examined type of psychological treatment for depression and is recomm­­end­ed in most treatment guidelines. Source: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/