Effectiveness of cognitive behavioral group therapy for depression in routine practice

Abstract

BackgroundPrevious research has shown that cognitive- behavioral group therapy (group CBT) is an effective treatment for depression. However, the effectiveness of this approach in routine care needs more research. The current study retrospectively examines the outcomes of patients who received group CBT for depression at a psychiatric outpatient clinic between 2003 and 2013.MethodsBased on patient records, 143 patients were identified as having received the treatment, and 88 patients were included in the outcome analyses. The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI-II) score was the main outcome measure.ResultsThe dropout rate was 17.5%. The average BDI-II score decreased from 28.5 to 18.5 from pre-treatment to post-treatment and remained stable at 3-months follow-up. The effect sizes at post-treatment and follow-up were large (d = .97 and d = 1.10, respectively). At post-treatment, 44% of the patients showed a significant improvement in depression, including 30% who recovered; at follow-up, the proportions increased to 57% and 40%, respectively. No predictors of dropout or treatment response were found.ConclusionsGroup CBT for depression can be delivered in routine care settings with good results. However, there are still many patients who drop out or do not benefit from treatment.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12888-014-0292-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Therapist-related feasibility of blended group therapy (bGT): Mixed methods study of a brief online- and mobile-supported group intervention for major depression (Preprint)

“…Observed effects correspond to earlier bGT depression studies [40,41,74], to benchmarking meta analyses on group therapy [75][76][77], and to recent group therapy trials in routine care [78,79]. Moreover, the current study expands these findings by indicating high treatment effects in a comparably short period of time; as guideline-based group CBT usually entails 15 -20 hour sessions [33].…”

Comparison of group cognitive behavioral therapy and interactive lectures in reducing anxiety during pregnancy

“…GCBT is a practical, effective, and affordable approach for the management of a number of disorders, including depression and anxiety. [ 37–39 ] To our knowledge, this study is one of the few studies to investigate the effectiveness of GCBT on maternal anxiety compared with IL and routine prenatal care.…”

The Integrative Positive Psychological Intervention for Depression (IPPI-D)

“…One of the distinctive features of this protocol is that it incorporated a balance between hedonic and eudaimonic components (see Table 2) as well as systematic in-session exercises and homework. It was applied in a group setting since the group format has been shown to be a cost-effective alternative to individual treatment (Tucker & Oei, 2007) and it provides some advantages in terms of promoting cohesion and a therapeutic context for recovery (Thimm & Antonsen, 2014). Moreover, the comprehensive assessment protocol designed to evaluate the efficacy of the intervention also maintains a balance between clinical and hedonic and eudaimonic measures.…”