Professional and paraprofessional group treatments for depression: a comparison of cognitive-behavioral and mutual support interventions. Effectiveness of teaching general practitioners skills in brief cognitive behaviour therapy to treat patients with depression: randomised controlled trial. Psychosocial interventions for somatizing patients by the general practitioner: a randomized controlled trial. Randomized trial of coordinated psychosocial interventions based on patient self-assessments versus standard care to improve the psychosocial functioning of patients with cancer. Efficacy of Interpersonal Psychotherapy-Adolescent Skills Training: an indicated preventive intervention for depression. The effects and expense of augmenting usual cancer clinic care with telephone problem-solving counseling. Randomized trial of a brief depression prevention program: an elusive search for a psychosocial placebo control condition. Randomised controlled trial of non-directive counselling, cognitive-behaviour therapy and usual general practitioner care in the management of depression as well as mixed anxiety and depression in primary care.
The relative efficacy of professional and paraprofessional therapists in providing group cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and mutual support group therapy (MSG) was examined. Depressed outpatients (N = 98) were randomly assigned to CBT or MSG led by either 2 professional or 2 paraprofessional therapists. Results suggest that nonprofessionals were as effective as professionals in reducing depressive symptoms and that clients in the CBT and MSG conditions improved equally. Clinically significant improvement was demonstrated for both conditions. However, following treatment, more patients in the professionally led CBT groups were classified as nondepressed and alleviated than in the paraprofessionally led CBT groups. Additionally, therapist adherence to manual-based treatments was associated with greater improvement in clinician-rated depressive symptoms in both conditions and skills in cognitive restructuring were associated with greater improvement among clients in CBT. To assess the effectiveness of teaching general practitioners skills in brief cognitive behaviour therapy.
                Parallel group, cluster randomised, controlled trial of an educational package on cognitive behaviour therapy.
                General practices in north London.
                84 general practitioner principals and 272 patients attending their practices who scored above the threshold for psychological distress on the hospital anxiety and depression scale. Intervention: A training package of four half days on brief cognitive behaviour therapy. Main outcome measures: Scores on the depression attitude questionnaire (general practitioners) and the Beck depression inventory (patients).
                Doctors' knowledge of depression and attitudes towards its treatment showed no major difference between intervention and control groups after 6 months. The training had no discernible impact on patients' outcomes.
                General practitioners may require more training and support than a basic educational package on brief cognitive behaviour therapy to acquire skills to help patients with depression. The objective of this study was to compare the effects of psychosocial interventions based on the modified reattribution model for somatizing patients in general practice (GP) with those of nonspecific psychosocial primary care (PPC) alone.
                Forty-two GPs were randomized, 23 into the intervention group (IG), who were trained in reattribution techniques, and 19 into the control group (CG). One hundred twenty-seven patients were included. Primary outcome measures were somatoform symptoms and quality of life.
                Multilevel modeling revealed a reduction of physical symptoms (P = .007), an improvement in physical functioning (P = .0172), and a reduction of depression (P = .0211) and anxiety (P = .0388) in the IG compared with the CG at the 3-month follow-up. However, results no longer remained significant after controlling for baseline and covariate variables besides a reduction of physical symptoms at 6-month follow-up (P = .029).
                Compared with nonspecific PPC, the effects of reattribution techniques were small and limited to physical symptoms. To determine whether making patient-reported cancer needs, quality-of-life (QOL), and psychosocial information available to the health care team, allowing coordinated specifically targeted psychosocial interventions, resulted in reduced cancer needs, improved QOL, and increased satisfaction with care received.
                Self-reported cancer needs, QOL, and psychosocial information was collected from 450 people with cancer, using standardized questionnaires via a touch-screen computer. For a randomly chosen two thirds, this information was made available to the health care team who coordinated targeted psychosocial interventions. Information from the remaining one third was not seen. Patients were assessed 2 and 6 months after randomization for changes in their cancer needs, QOL, and psychosocial functioning and satisfaction with overall care received.
                There were no significant differences between the two arms with respect to changes in cancer needs, QOL, or psychosocial functioning between the baseline and follow-up assessments, nor with respect to satisfaction with care. However, for the subgroup of patients who were moderately or severely depressed at baseline, there was a significant reduction in depression for the intervention arm relative to the control arm at the 6-month assessment (P =.001).
                Making patient-reported cancer needs, QOL, and psychosocial data available to the health care team at a single consultation together with coordinated psychosocial interventions does not seem to reduce cancer needs nor improve QOL, psychosocial functioning, or satisfaction with the care received. However, identification of patients with moderate or severe levels of depression may be valuable in reducing subsequent levels of depression. Indicated interventions for adolescents with elevated depressive symptoms may help decrease rates of depression. The current study reports on the efficacy of Interpersonal Psychotherapy-Adolescent Skills Training (IPT-AST), a group indicated preventive intervention.
                Forty-one adolescents with elevated depression symptoms were randomized to receive either IPT-AST or school counseling (SC) as delivered by guidance counselors and social workers. Adolescents in the two intervention conditions were compared on depression symptoms, overall functioning, and depression diagnoses post-intervention and at 3-month and 6-month follow-up.
                Adolescents who received IPT-AST had significantly fewer depression symptoms and better overall functioning post-intervention and at follow-up. Adolescents in IPT-AST also reported fewer depression diagnoses than adolescents in usual care.
                These results provide preliminary evidence of the efficacy of IPT-AST as an intervention for adolescents with subthreshold depression. Future research is needed to confirm the efficacy of IPT-AST in a larger and more diverse sample and to determine its long-term impact on depression symptoms and depression diagnoses. This study was done to assess the effectiveness and efficiency of individualized, problem-solving counseling provided by baccalaureate nurses over the telephone to prevent the onset of depression in persons with breast, lung, or prostate cancer. Of 175 persons randomized, 149 completed the 8-month follow-up. The primary outcome measures were changes in the Jalowiec Coping Scale, the Centre for Epidemiologic Studies in Depression Scale, and the Derogotis Psychosocial Adjustment to Illness Scale. In addition, expenditures for people's use of all health and social services were computed at baseline and follow-up. Telephone counseling improved the use of more favorable coping behaviors, prevented a clinically important but not statistically significant decline into depression, and poor psychosocial adjustment in a group of people with mixed cancer. These results were associated with a greater total per person per annum expenditure for use of all other health and social services in the community compared with the control group. In a situation of limited resources and a service producing more effect for more costs, one needs either to examine what services to forgo to offer this service or to carefully target the new service to those most likely to benefit. This trial compared a brief group cognitive-behavioral (CBT) depression prevention program to a waitlist control condition and four placebo or alternative interventions. High-risk adolescents with elevated depressive symptoms (N=225, M age=18, 70% female) were randomized to CBT, supportive-expressive group intervention, bibliotherapy, expressive writing, journaling, or waitlist conditions and completed assessments at baseline, termination, and 1- and 6-month follow-up. All five active interventions showed significantly greater reductions in depressive symptoms at termination than waitlist controls; effects for CBT and bibliotherapy persisted into follow-up. CBT, supportive-expressive, and bibliotherapy participants also showed significantly greater decreases in depressive symptoms than expressive writing and journaling participants at certain follow-up points. Findings suggest there may be multiple ways to reduce depressive symptoms in high-risk adolescents, although expectancies, demand characteristics, and attention may have contributed to the observed effects. The aim of this study was to determine both the clinical and cost-effectiveness of usual general practitioner (GP) care compared with two types of brief psychological therapy (non-directive counselling and cognitive-behaviour therapy) in the management of depression as well as mixed anxiety and depression in the primary care setting.
                The design was principally a pragmatic randomised controlled trial, but was accompanied by two additional allocation methods allowing patient preference: the option of a specific choice of treatment (preference allocation) and the option to be randomised between the psychological therapies only. Of the 464 patients allocated to the three treatments, 197 were randomised between the three treatments, 137 chose a specific treatment, and 130 were randomised between the psychological therapies only. The patients underwent follow-up assessments at 4 and 12 months.
                The study was conducted in 24 general practices in Greater Manchester and London.
                A total of 464 eligible patients, aged 18 years and over, were referred by 73 GPs and allocated to one of the psychological therapies or usual GP care for depressive symptoms.
                The interventions consisted of brief psychological therapy (12 sessions maximum) or usual GP care. Non-directive counselling was provided by counsellors who were qualified for accreditation by the British Association for Counselling. Cognitive-behaviour therapy was provided by clinical psychologists who were qualified for accreditation by the British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapies. Usual GP care included discussions with patients and the prescription of medication, but GPs were asked to refrain from referring patients for psychological intervention for at least 4 months. Most therapy sessions took place on a weekly basis in the general practices. By the 12-month follow-up, GP care in some cases did include referral to mental healthcare specialists.
                The clinical outcomes included depressive symptoms, general psychiatric symptoms, social function and patient satisfaction. The economic outcomes included direct and indirect costs and quality of life. Assessments were carried out at baseline during face-to-face interviews as well as at 4 and 12 months in person or by post.
                At 4 months, both psychological therapies had reduced depressive symptoms to a significantly greater extent than usual GP care. Patients in the psychological therapy groups exhibited mean scores on the Beck Depression Inventory that were 4-5 points lower than the mean score of patients in the usual GP care group, a difference that was also clinically significant. These differences did not generalize to other measures of outcome. There was no significant difference in outcome between the two psychological therapies when they were compared directly using all 260 patients randomised to a psychological therapy by either randomised allocation method. At 12 months, the patients in all three groups had improved to the same extent. The lack of a significant difference between the treatment groups at this point resulted from greater improvement of the patients in the GP care group between the 4- and 12-month follow-ups. At 4 months, patients in both psychological therapy groups were more satisfied with their treatment than those in the usual GP care group. However, by 12 months, patients who had received non-directive counselling were more satisfied than those in either of the other two groups. There were few differences in the baseline characteristics of patients who were randomised or expressed a treatment preference, and no differences in outcome between these patients. Similar outcomes were found for patients who chose either psychological therapy. Again, there were no significant differences between the two groups at 4 or 12 months. Patients who chose counselling were more satisfied with treatment than those who chose c
In general, there is little available evidence on the use of psychosocial interventions by general practitioners. Of the psychosocial interventions reviewed, problem-solving treatment for depression may offer promise, although a stronger evidence-base is required and the effectiveness in routine practice remains to be demonstrated. More research is required to improve the evidence-base on this subject.