Cited by 128Psychotherapy Techniques and ApplicationsAnxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive ProcessesDigital Mental Health Interventions

Personalized Psychotherapy for Adult Depression: A Meta-Analytic Review

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Cuijpers, Pim, Ebert, David D., Acarturk, Ceren, Andersson, Gerhard, Cristea, Ioana A.·2016·Behavior Therapy

Abstract

Personalized medicine is aimed at identifying which characteristics of an individual predict the outcome of a specific treatment, in order to get a better match between the individual and the treatment received. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized trials comparing two psychotherapies directly in a group of depressed patients with a specific characteristic. We focused on the six most examined types of psychotherapy for adult depression. Our searches resulted in 41 studies with 2,741 patients who met inclusion criteria. These 41 studies examined 27 specific characteristics of patients. Power calculations indicated that we would need 4 studies for each characteristic to find a clinically relevant effect size set at g = 0.50 and 16 studies for an effect size of 0.24. Only 3 patient characteristics were found to have sufficient power and to significantly moderate treatment outcomes. Cognitive-behavioral therapy was found to be more effective than other therapies in older adults (g = 0.29), in patients with comorbid addictive disorders (g = 0.31), and in university students (g = 0.46). Risk of bias was considerable in most of the included studies. It was estimated that it will take another 326 years to have sufficient statistical power for showing an effect size of g = 0.50 of the 27 characteristics, and 1,372 years to show an effect size of 0.24. Although several dozens of studies have compared the effects of psychotherapies in specific target groups, we will need to develop more powerful alternatives to comparative outcome studies in order to identify personalized treatments for depression.

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Authors
Cuijpers, P., Ebert, D. D., Acarturk, C., Andersson, G., & Cristea, I. A.
Affiliations
  • Amsterdam Public Health (NL)
  • Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (DE)
  • Linköping University (SE)
  • University of Pisa (IT)
Corresponding author
Cuijpers, Pim
Venue
Behavior Therapy
Publisher
Elsevier BV
Published
2016-11
Volume
47
Issue
6
Pages
966-980
ISSN
0005-7894 (ISSN-L)
OpenAlex
W2346443303
Cited by
128
References
54
Citations by year
2026: 7 · 2025: 9 · 2024: 9 · 2023: 8 · 2022: 14 · 2021: 44 · 2020: 13 · 2019: 10 · 2018: 6 · 2017: 5 · 2016: 2
FWCI
10.26
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Behavior Therapy (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Istanbul Şehir University Institutional Repository (Istanbul Şehir University) (submittedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
  • VU Research Portal (submittedVersion, other-oa)
  • Padua Research Archive (University of Padova) (submittedVersion)
  • Data Archiving and Networked Services (DANS) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Digital Mental Health Interventions
Keywords
personalized medicine, adult depression, psychotherapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, treatment outcome prediction, patient characteristics, statistical power, older adults, university students, risk of bias
MeSH terms
Depressive Disorder, Humans, Person-Centered Psychotherapy, Psychotherapy, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Precision Medicine

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