The DOI matches its Crossref record; 77 of the 77 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
Treatment-as-usual (TAU) is anything but usual: A meta-analysis of CBT versus TAU for anxiety and depression
Abstract
Objectives There were three aims of this study, the first was to examine the efficacy of CBT versus treatment-as-usual (TAU) in the treatment of anxiety and depressive disorders, the second was to examine how TAU is defined in TAU control groups for those disorders, and the third was to explore whether the type of TAU condition influences the estimate of effects of CBT.Method A systematic search of Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, PsycINFO, and CINAHL was conducted.Results 48 studies of CBT for depressive or anxiety disorders (n=6926) that specified that their control group received TAU were identified. Most (n=45/48) provided an explanation of the TAU group however there was significant heterogeneity amongst TAU conditions. The meta-analysis showed medium effects favoring CBT over TAU for both anxiety (g=0.69, 95% CI 0.47-0.92, p<0.001, n=1318) and depression (g=0.70, 95% CI 0.49-0.90, p<0.001, n=5054), with differential effects observed across TAU conditions.Conclusions CBT is superior to TAU and the size of the effect of CBT compared to TAU depends on the nature of the TAU condition. The term TAU is used in different ways and should be more precisely described. The four key details to be reported can be thought of as "who, what, how many, and any additional treatments?"
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“TAU, in addition, was also found to be a very heterogeneous control condition and anything but usual or standard care85,86.”
From A systematic review and meta-analysis of acceptance- and mindfulness-based interventions for DSM-5 anxiety disorders (2021) · cites this paper as [86]
In the citing paper
“Remission of depression in a mother has positive effects on her school aged and adolescent children 564,676 for at least a year afterwards: 677 including the children of mothers treated with medication 676,678 or psychotherapy, 679-682 and varying with the severity of maternal depression. 683”
From Time for united action on depression: a Lancet–World Psychiatric Association Commission (2022) · cites this paper as [564]
In the citing paper
“Usually, the effect size of cognitive behavioral therapies is smaller, for example, when compared with TAU than with a wait-list condition (56).”
From Computer-assisted avatar-based treatment for dysfunctional beliefs in depressive inpatients: A pilot study (2021) · cites this paper as [56]
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Whiteford, H. A., Degenhardt, L., Rehm, J., Baxter, A. J., Ferrari, A. J., Erskine, H. E., Charlson, F. J., Norman, R. E., Flaxman, A. D., Johns, N., et al. (2013) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(13)61611-6 · Cited by 6,006
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Time for united action on depression: a Lancet–World Psychiatric Association Commission
Herrman, H., Patel, V., Kieling, C., Berk, M., Buchweitz, C., Cuijpers, P., Furukawa, T. A., Kessler, R. C., Kohrt, B. A., Maj, M., et al. (2022) · The Lancet · doi:10.1016/s0140-6736(21)02141-3 · Cited by 1,104
Andrews, G., Basu, A., Cuijpers, P., Craske, M. G., McEvoy, P., English, C. L., & Newby, J. M. (2018) · Journal of Anxiety Disorders · doi:10.1016/j.janxdis.2018.01.001 · Cited by 922
Self-citationCarpenter, J. K., Andrews, L. A., Witcraft, S. M., Powers, M. B., Smits, J. A. J., & Hofmann, S. G. (2018) · Depression and Anxiety · doi:10.1002/da.22728 · Cited by 846
“Such comparisons are suboptimal because waitlist control conditions do not control for the effect of patient expectations on treatment outcomes (e.g., Greenberg, Constantino, & Bruce, 2006), and TAU conditions are highly varied and not closely monitored (Watts et al., 2015).”
BackgroundNewby, J. M., McKinnon, A., Kuyken, W., Gilbody, S., & Dalgleish, T. (2015) · Clinical Psychology Review · doi:10.1016/j.cpr.2015.06.002 · Cited by 545
Self-citationCognitive-behavioral therapy for anxiety disorders: An update on the empirical evidence
Kaczkurkin, A. N., & Foa, E. B. (2015) · Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience · doi:10.31887/dcns.2015.17.3/akaczkurkin · Cited by 523
Metadata
- Authors
- Watts, S. E., Turnell, A., Kladnitski, N., Newby, J. M., & Andrews, G.
- Affiliations
- St Vincent's Hospital Sydney (AU)
- Corresponding author
- Newby, Jill M.
- Venue
- Journal of Affective Disorders
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2015-04
- Volume
- 175
- Pages
- 152-167
- ISSN
- 0165-0327 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W2083442609
- Cited by
- 188
- References
- 76
- Citations by year
- 2026: 6 · 2025: 18 · 2024: 12 · 2023: 17 · 2022: 25 · 2021: 25 · 2020: 15 · 2019: 17 · 2018: 23 · 2017: 12 · 2016: 11 · 2015: 7
- FWCI
- 1.35
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- Journal of Affective Disorders (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Anxiety, Depression, Psychometrics, Treatment, Cognitive Processes
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Digital Mental Health Interventions
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications
- Keywords
- cognitive behavioral therapy, usual care, anxiety disorders, depressive disorders, treatment efficacy, differential treatment effects
- MeSH terms
- Anxiety, Anxiety Disorders, Depression, Depressive Disorder, Humans, Thinking, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
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