Meeting the unmet need for depression services with psycho-educational self-confidence workshops: preliminary report.
BACKGROUND
The prevalence of depression has not fallen despite effective treatments being available.


OBJECTIVE
To examine the effectiveness of a psycho-educational intervention designed to be easily accessible.


METHODS
Large-scale, self-referral 'How to improve your self-confidence' workshops were run in a leisure centre at weekends. The day-long programme used a cognitive-behavioural approach. A randomised controlled trial design using waiting-list controls was employed. Three months after the workshop, results of workshop participants were compared with those of the waiting list control group.


RESULTS
Among 120 people who self-referred, 75% of participants had General Health Questionnaire scores of 3 and above. Over 39% had never previously consulted their general practitioners about their depression. At 3-month follow-up, members of the experimental group were significantly less depressed, less distressed and reported higher self-esteem.


CONCLUSIONS
Workshops were shown to be accessible and effective; a larger, more rigorous trial is now needed.
Brown
June S L
JS
Psychology Department (PO77), Institute of Psychiatry, De Crespigny Park, London SE5 8AF, UK. June.Brown@iop.kcl.ac.uk
Elliott
Sandra A
SA
Boardman
Jed
J
Ferns
Joe
J
Morrison
Joanna
J
D000328:Adult; D003866:Depressive Disorder / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008131:London; D008297:Male; D020380:Needs Assessment; D010342:Patient Acceptance of Health Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D010353:Patient Education as Topic; D011613:Psychotherapy / Q000379:methods*; D012649:Self Concept; D012959:Socioeconomic Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome