title: Time to improve and recover from depressive symptoms and interpersonal problems in a clinical trial.
abstract: Results from an earlier clinical trial comparing narrative therapy with cognitive-behavioural therapy (Lopes et al., 2013) suggested that narrative therapy is efficacious for depression. However, there were significant differences in symptom reduction on the Beck Depression Inventory-II, favouring cognitive-behavioural therapy, if dropouts were included in the analysis, suggesting that time to recovery or improvement would differ in both treatments. Contrarily, results showed that treatment assignment was not a predictor for differential effect. Using a survival analytic approach, it was found that four sessions were necessary for 50% improvement and 16 sessions for 50% recovery. Additionally, depressive symptoms changes occurred significantly faster than interpersonal changes, again regardless of treatment assignment. These results support previous findings of the dose-response literature and of the phase model of change, with the advantage of being specific to psychotherapy with depressive clients.
authors.affiliation: School of Psychology, University of Minho, Braga, Portugal.
authors.forename: Rodrigo T
authors.initials: RT
authors.lastname: Lopes
authors.forename: Miguel M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Gonçalves
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Fassnacht
authors.forename: Paulo P P
authors.initials: PP
authors.lastname: Machado
authors.forename: Inês
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Sousa
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy; D015928:Cognitive Behavioral Therapy; D015897:Comorbidity; D003865:Major Depressive Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology / Q000628:therapy*; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D062525:Narrative Therapy; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy; Depression; Empirically Supported Therapy (EST); Narrative Therapy; Psychological Treatment of Depression; Survival Analysis; Treatment of Depression