major depression

Depression Recurrence Limited With Cognitive Therapy

Preventive cognitive therapy (PCT) may help prevent recurrence and relapse among individuals with major depressive disorder (MDD) who are currently taking antidepressants and in those who wish to taper off antidepressants, according to new findings.

The effectiveness of the therapy was demonstrated in a recent randomized controlled trial of 289 participants who had experienced at least 2 depressive episodes and were in remission or recovery on antidepressants.  The trial was conducted from July 14, 2009, to April 30, 2015.
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Each participant was randomly assigned to treatment with either PCT and antidepressants (n = 104), antidepressants alone (n = 100), or PCT with tapering of antidepressants (n = 85).

Results demonstrated that combined PCT and antidepressant treatment was superior to the use of antidepressants alone and was associated with a 41% reduction in relative risk of relapse or recurrence compared with antidepressants alone (hazard ratio [HR] 0.59).

Furthermore, the use of antidepressants alone was not found to be superior to PCT while tapering off antidepressants in regard to relapse or recurrence risk (HR 0.86).

“PCT should be offered to recurrently depressed individuals on antidepressants and to individuals who wish to stop antidepressants after recovery,” the researchers concluded.

—Christina Vogt

Reference:

Bockting CLH, Klein NS, Elgersma HJ, et al. Effectiveness of preventive cognitive therapy while tapering antidepressants versus maintenance antidepressant treatment versus their combination in prevention of depressive relapse or recurrence (DRD study): a three-group, multicenter, randomized controlled trial [Published online April 3, 2018]. Lancet Psychiatry. https://doi.org/10.1016/S2215-0366(18)30100-7.