Objective: Meta‐analyses of psychotherapies usually report effects sizes, while clinicians and patients need to know the proportion of patients who benefit from therapy. We conducted a meta‐analysis of therapies for depression reporting the rates of response (50% symptom reduction), remission (HAM‐D <7), clinical significant deterioration for psychotherapy, and control conditions (CAU, waitlist, and pill placebo), as well as the relative risk of these outcomes and the numbers‐needed‐to‐be‐treated (NNTs).Methods: We searched bibliographic databases and included 228 randomized trials comparing psychotherapy for depression against control conditions (75 with low risk of bias). Only therapies with at least 10 trials were included. We extracted outcomes from the studies, and for those studies not reporting the outcomes, we used a validated method to estimate the rates.Results: The overall response rate in psychotherapies at 2 (±1) months after baseline was 41% (95% CI: 38~43), 17% (15~20) for usual care (CAU), and 16% (95% CI: 14~18) for waitlist. No significant differences between types of therapy were found. The NNT for therapy versus CAU was 5.3 and versus waitlist 3.9. About one third of patients remitted after therapy compared with 7%–13% in control conditions. The rates of deterioration were 5% versus 12%–13%, respectively. Most sensitivity analyses supported the general findings.Conclusion: Psychotherapies for depression may be effective compared with control conditions, but more than half of patients receiving therapy do not respond and only one third remitted. More effective treatments and treatment strategies such as sequencing and combining treatments are clearly needed.

To examine if cognitive restructuring (CR), behavioral activation (BA), and cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) result in differential effects in the treatment of adult depression. We extracted randomized controlled trials (RCTs) from a database updated yearly from PubMed, PsycINFO, Embase, and Cochrane Library. Network and pairwise meta-analyses were conducted to investigate the effects of CR, BA, and CBT delivered in a face-to-face individual format, compared with waiting list (WL) and care-as-usual (CAU), on adult depression. The primary outcome was a standardized mean difference (SMD) in posttreatment depression severity. Tolerability of treatments and depression severity at follow-up were also assessed. A total of 45 studies with 3,382 participants were included. There was no evidence of a difference in effectiveness between CR, BA, and CBT. All three interventions were superior to CAU; SMD 0.57, 95% confidence interval [CI 0.08-1.07]; 0.52 [0.34-0.71]; 0.44 [0.28-0.60], respectively and WL 1.20 [0.69-1.70]; 1.15 [0.90-1.40]; 1.07 [0.87-1.26]. No difference in tolerability was found (risk ratio [RR] vs. CAU: 1.01 [0.04-22.81], 0.84 [0.63-1.11], and 0.96 [0.76-1.21], respectively). Metaregression and sensitivity analyses did not produce material differences. Results suggest that CR or BA alone and their combination (CBT) may be effective interventions in comparison to WL and CAU in the treatment of adult depression. There was no evidence suggesting differences in effectiveness among the three treatments. More research is needed to derive conclusions about the performance of CR. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Meta-analyses show that psychotherapies are effective in the treatment of depression in children and adolescents. However, these effects are usually reported in terms of effect sizes. For patients and clinicians, it is important to know whether patients achieve a clinically significant improvement or deterioration. We conducted such a meta-analysis to examine response, clinically significant change, clinically significant deterioration and recovery as outcomes. We searched four bibliographic databases and included 40 randomised trials comparing psychotherapy for youth depression against control conditions. We used a validated method to estimate outcome rates, based on means, standard deviation and N at baseline and post-test. We also calculated numbers-need-to- treat (NNT). The overall response rate in psychotherapies at 2 (±1) months after baseline was 39% (95% CI: 34–45) and 24% (95% CI: 0.19–28) in control conditions (NNT: 6.2). The difference between therapy and control was still significant at 6–12 months after baseline (NNT=7.8). Clinically significant improvement was found in 54% of youth in therapy, compared with 32% in control groups (NNT=5.3); clinically significant deterioration was 6% in therapy, 13% in controls (NNT=5.1); recovery was 58% in therapy, 36% in controls (NNT=3.3). Smaller effects were found in studies with low risk of bias. Psychotherapies for depression in youth are effective compared to control conditions, but more than 60% of youth receiving therapy do not respond. More effective treatments and treatment strategies are clearly needed. Trial registrationhttps://osf.io/84xka

Common mental disorders, such as depression and anxiety, often emerge in college students during the transition into early adulthood. Mental health problems can seriously impact students' functioning, interpersonal relationships, and academic achievement. Actively reaching out to college students with mental health problems and offering them internet-based interventions may be a promising way of providing low-threshold access to evidence-based treatment in colleges. This randomized controlled trial aimed to assess the effectiveness of a guided web-based transdiagnostic individually tailored Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (iCBT) in treating college students with depression and/or anxiety symptoms. Through an online survey that screened college students' mental health, we recruited 100 college students aged ≥18 years who reported mild to moderate depression and/or anxiety symptoms and were attending colleges in the Netherlands. Participants were randomly allocated to guided iCBT (n = 48) or treatment as usual (TAU) control (n = 52). Primary outcomes were symptoms of depression and anxiety measured at post-treatment (7 weeks post-randomization). We also measured all outcomes at 6- and 12-months post-randomization. All analyses were based on the intention-to-treat principle and were repeated using the complete-case sample. We found no evidence of a difference between the effects of guided iCBT and TAU in any of the examined outcomes (i.e., symptoms of depression and anxiety, quality of life, educational achievement, and college dropout) across all time points (p > .05). There was no evidence that effects of iCBT were associated with treatment satisfaction and adherence. More research into transdiagnostic individually tailored iCBT is necessary. Further, future studies should recruit larger samples to investigate possible smaller but clinically relevant effects of internet-based interventions for college students with depression and/or anxiety.

While randomized trials typically lack sufficient statistical power to identify predictors and moderators of outcome, ”individual participant data” (IPD) meta-analyses, which combine primary data of multiple randomized trials, can increase the statistical power to identify predictors and moderators of outcome. We conducted a systematic review of IPD meta-analyses on psychological treatments of depression to provide an overview of predictors and moderators identified. We included 10 (eight pairwise and two network) IPD meta-analyses. Six meta-analyses showed that higher baseline depression severity was associated with better outcomes, and two found that older age was associated with better outcomes. Because power was high in most IPD meta-analyses, non-significant findings are also of interest because they indicate that these variables are probably not relevant as predictors and moderators. We did not find in any IPD meta-analysis that gender, education level, or relationship status were significant predictors or moderators. This review shows that IPD meta-analyses on psychological treatments can identify predictors and moderators of treatment effects and thereby contribute considerably to the development of personalized treatments of depression.

Mental health-related stigma and discrimination not only affect persons living with schizophrenia but also their whole families. Stigma and discrimination reduction is key to respond to the unmet needs of persons with mental illness. The local context is of particular importance in this endeavor, as stigma and its manifestations depend on the specific conditions of the target population and across cultures and settings. Evidence on effective approaches to reduce stigma is sparse and lacking from Central and Eastern Europe, including from the Czech Republic. Our aim was to inform an anti-stigma campaign undertaken in the framework of the national mental health reform in the Czech Republic. We conducted a qualitative study based on semi-structured in-depth interviews with relatives of patients diagnosed with schizophrenia in the Czech Republic. Initial respondents were identified through local mental health services and users' organizations with a consecutive chain-referral sampling. Transcribed narratives were thematically analyzed within a pre-developed four-level thematic framework to comprehensively identify experiences of stigma and discrimination in all areas of the respondents' lives. Stigma experiences of 25 diverse family members of persons living with schizophrenia spanned four levels of respondents' lives (macro-, meso-, micro-, and intro-level). The overarching issues were: (1) general lack of understanding and misconceptions about mental illness; (2) structural discrimination and paucity of governmental and public support system; (3) burden of "pervasive and unlimited" care and inability of independent living. We identified several features of mental health related stigma and the ensuing discrimination in Czech Republic experienced by persons with severe mental illness and their relatives. We developed a set of recommendations for policy-makers aimed at reducing ignorance and prejudice amongst the public and professionals, improving health and social services-including employment, housing and community integration-and the provision of family support.