Such an overview makes it possible to follow new developments and conduct meta-analyses when sufficient studies are available for a specific therapy or comparison. However, with this large and increasing number of trials it is important to keep a good, up-to-date overview of this field. Many meta-analyses have been conducted over the past years. At this moment more than 600 trials on psychotherapy for depression in adults are available and it can be expected that every two years another 100 trials will be published in the coming year.īecause of this huge body of knowledge, it is important that the results of these studies are summarized and integrated in meta-analytic studies. Every year dozens of new trials are conducted and the number of trials has been increasing steadily over the years, with more trials being conducted every year compared to the previous year (22). Psychotherapy for depression is undoubtedly the best examined field of psychotherapy for any mental health problem.

They have been compared with each other, with pharmacotherapy and combined treatment, and different treatment formats have been compared with each other. Psychotherapies have been compared with control conditions, such as waiting lists and care as usual.

Many studies also compare psychological treatments with pharmacotherapy and combined therapy (20,21).īecause of all these differences between therapies, target groups, and treatment formats, many different comparisons have been examined in randomized trials in the past decades. They are offered to specific populations, such as women with post-partum depression, older adults, children and adolescents, patients with comorbid general medical disorders, student populations and inpatients (19).

These therapies are not only offered in an individual format, but also in group, telephone-based, guided self-help, and increasingly without any professional support through the internet (17,18). Several types of therapy have been developed and found to be effective, including cognitive behavior therapy (5,6), behavioral activation therapy (7,8), interpersonal psychotherapy (9,10), problem-solving therapy (11,12), psychodynamic therapy (13,14), third-wave psychotherapies (15), and non-directive counseling (16).

Psychological therapies are one of the first-line treatments of depression, and in the past decades several hundreds of randomized trials have examined the effects of these therapies. Depression is a highly prevalent, disabling and costly disorder that is linked with considerably diminished role functioning and quality of life, medical comorbidity and mortality (1–4).

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