New prognostic review: Predicting relapse or recurrence of depression

In this author interview, lead authors Nick Meader and Andrew Moriarity tell us about thisrecently published Cochrane review, how they worked with a patient advisory group, and how they rose to the challenge of this being their first prognostic review, and the first of this type for Cochrane Common Mental Disorders.Nick Meader: According to the World Health Organization (WHO), depression is the leading cause of disability worldwide and, during the pandemic, depression symptoms have increased in many countries.We have effective treatments for depression (like antidepressants and cognitive behavioural therapy). So, a substantial number of people will no longer have symptoms of depression. But about half of those who improve will later experience a relapse or recurrence (become unwell again after an initial improvement). For most of these, relapse or recurrence occurs within a year of an improvement in symptoms.We wanted to investigate whether there are methods to help identify which people are more likely to experience a relapse or recurrence.Andrew Moriarty:  As a GP, I routinely see the personal impacts of relapse and recurrence of depression. We want to provide strategies to prevent relapse for all patients, but in reality there are all sorts of reasons why this might not happen. Reasons might include resource availability, knowledge of health care professionals, or patient preferences, among others. So until we achieve optimal on-going depression management for all, at lea...
Source: Cochrane News and Events - Category: Information Technology Authors: Source Type: news