title: A randomised controlled trial of cognitive behaviour therapy vs treatment as usual in the treatment of mild to moderate late life depression.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  This study provides an empirical evaluation of Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (CBT) alone vs Treatment as usual (TAU) alone (generally pharmacotherapy) for late life depression in a UK primary care setting.
  
  
  METHODS
  General Practitioners in Fife and Glasgow referred 114 Participants to the study with 44 meeting inclusion criteria and 40 participants providing data that permitted analysis. All participants had a diagnosis of mild to moderate Major Depressive Episode. Participants were randomly allocated to receive either TAU alone or CBT alone.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Participants in both treatment conditions benefited from treatment with reduced scores on primary measures of mood at end of treatment and at 6 months follow-up from the end of treatment. When adjusting for differences in baseline scores, gender and living arrangements, CBT may be beneficial in levels of hopelessness at 6 months follow-up. When evaluating outcome in terms of numbers of participants meeting Research Diagnostic Criteria for depression, there were significant differences favouring the CBT condition at the end of treatment and at 3 months follow-up after treatment.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  CBT alone and TAU alone produced significant reductions in depressive symptoms at the end of treatment and at 6 months follow-up. CBT on its own is shown to be an effective treatment procedure for mild to moderate late life depression and has utility as a treatment alternative for older people who cannot or will not tolerate physical treatment approaches for depression.
authors.affiliation: University of Edinburgh, Section of Clinical and Health Psychology, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK. klaidlaw@ed.ac.uk <klaidlaw@ed.ac.uk>
authors.forename: Ken
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Laidlaw
authors.forename: Kate
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Davidson
authors.forename: Hugh
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Toner
authors.forename: Graham
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Jackson
authors.forename: Stella
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Clark
authors.forename: Jim
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Law
authors.forename: Mary
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Howley
authors.forename: Gillian
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Bowie
authors.forename: Hazel
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Connery
authors.forename: Susan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Cross
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000928:Antidepressive Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D015928:Cognitive Behavioral Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010349:Patient Compliance / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D011320:Primary Health Care / Q000592:standards; D011788:Quality of Life / Q000523:psychology*; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D000928:Antidepressive Agents