Was Eysenck right after all? A reassessment of the effects of psychotherapy for adult depression

Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences
Pim CuijpersD D Ebert

Abstract

In the 1950s, Eysenck suggested that psychotherapies may not be effective at all. Twenty-five years later, the first meta-analysis of randomised controlled trials showed that the effects of psychotherapies were considerable and that Eysenck was wrong. However, since that time methods have become available to assess biases in meta-analyses. We examined the influence of these biases on the effects of psychotherapies for adult depression, including risk of bias, publication bias and the exclusion of waiting list control groups. The unadjusted effect size of psychotherapies compared with control groups was g = 0.70 (limited to Western countries: g = 0.63), which corresponds to a number-needed-to-treat of 4.18. Only 23% of the studies could be considered as a low risk of bias. When adjusting for several sources of bias, the effect size across all types of therapies dropped to g = 0.31. These results suggest that the effects of psychotherapy for depression are small, above the threshold that has been suggested as the minimal important difference in the treatment of depression, and Eysenck was probably wrong. However, this is still not certain because we could not adjust for all types of bias. Unadjusted meta-analyses of psychotherapi...Continue Reading

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Citations

Dec 15, 2018·Annual Review of Clinical Psychology·Pim CuijpersMarcus J H Huibers
Sep 3, 2019·Psychological Medicine·Falk LeichsenringJohn P A Ioannidis
May 16, 2020·Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences·Nickolas D FrostBruce E Wampold
Sep 10, 2019·World Psychiatry : Official Journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA)·Pim Cuijpers
Mar 12, 2019·Current Opinion in Psychiatry·Johan OrmelRobert Schoevers
Jun 4, 2019·Zeitschrift für Psychosomatische Medizin und Psychotherapie·Stephan Doering
Jun 4, 2019·Zeitschrift für Psychosomatische Medizin und Psychotherapie·Thomas MunderBruce E Wampold
Aug 28, 2019·International Archives of Occupational and Environmental Health·Ben F M WijnenFilip Smit
Jun 20, 2020·BMC Psychiatry·Susan McPhersonIlaria Tercelli
May 21, 2018·Current Psychiatry Reports·Joseph FirthJerome Sarris
Jul 11, 2019·Expert Opinion on Pharmacotherapy·Mauro Giovanni CartaAntonio Preti
Oct 13, 2020·Psychotherapie, Psychosomatik, medizinische Psychologie·Sebastian WolfAnsgar Thiel
Nov 27, 2020·Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences·Mark J D Jordans, Brandon A Kohrt
Dec 19, 2020·Journal of Clinical Epidemiology·Ioannis MichopoulosPim Cuijpers
Jan 22, 2021·Journal of Psychiatric Research·Larry PriceRita Hitching
Mar 2, 2021·Internet Interventions : the Application of Information Technology in Mental and Behavioural Health·Martin PolakGerhard Andersson
Mar 28, 2021·Journal of Affective Disorders·Pim CuijpersEirini Karyotaki
Jul 13, 2021·The Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry·Janet D CarterRoger T Mulder
Jul 7, 2021·Archives of Women's Mental Health·Pim Cuijpers, Eirini Karyotaki
Jan 8, 2022·Psychological Medicine·A John RushR Hamish McAllister-Williams
Jan 12, 2022·World Psychiatry : Official Journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA)·Falk LeichsenringJohn P A Ioannidis

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