The symptom-specific efficacy of antidepressant medication vs. cognitive behavioral therapy in the treatment of depression: results from an individual patient data meta-analysis.

The symptom-specific efficacy of antidepressant medication vs. cognitive behavioral therapy in the treatment of depression: results from an individual patient data meta-analysis. World Psychiatry. 2019 Jun;18(2):183-191 Authors: Boschloo L, Bekhuis E, Weitz ES, Reijnders M, DeRubeis RJ, Dimidjian S, Dunner DL, Dunlop BW, Hegerl U, Hollon SD, Jarrett RB, Kennedy SH, Miranda J, Mohr DC, Simons AD, Parker G, Petrak F, Herpertz S, Quilty LC, John Rush A, Segal ZV, Vittengl JR, Schoevers RA, Cuijpers P Abstract A recent individual patient data meta-analysis showed that antidepressant medication is slightly more efficacious than cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) in reducing overall depression severity in patients with a DSM-defined depressive disorder. We used an update of that dataset, based on seventeen randomized clinical trials, to examine the comparative efficacy of antidepressant medication vs. CBT in more detail by focusing on individual depressive symptoms as assessed with the 17-item Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression. Five symptoms (i.e., "depressed mood" , "feelings of guilt" , "suicidal thoughts" , "psychic anxiety" and "general somatic symptoms") showed larger improvements in the medication compared to the CBT condition (effect sizes ranging from .13 to .16), whereas no differences were found for the twelve other symptoms. In addition, network estimation techniques revealed that all effects, except that on "depressed ...
Source: World Psychiatry - Category: Psychiatry Authors: Tags: World Psychiatry Source Type: research