When drugs for depression fail, talking therapies help
Patients with depression who fail to benefit from antidepressant drugs may do better if they are also treated with a type of "talking" psychotherapy called CBT, according to new research published on Friday.
In the first large-scale trial to test the effectiveness of cognitive behavioural therapy, or CBT, alongside medication for depression, scientists said they found that the combination works where drug treatment alone fails.
Nicola Wiles of Bristol University's school of social and community medicine, who led the study, said the findings underline the need to increase the availability of therapy for depressed patients.
"While there have been initiatives to increase access to CBT in both the UK and Australia, worldwide initiatives are rare," she said in a statement.
Wiles and colleagues recruited 469 adults from across Britain who had not responded to at least 6 weeks of treatment with an antidepressant. For the study, 235 patients continued with their usual antidepressant medication, while 234 patients got their usual care plus CBT and were followed up for 12 months.
The results, published in The Lancet medical journal, showed
that after 6 months, 46 per cent of those who got CBT as well as their usual care had improved - reporting at least a 50 per cent reduction in their depressive symptoms. This compared to 22 per cent of those who did not get CBT.
Patients treated with CBT, which involves talking through behaviours and ways of thinking with a trained psychotherapist or psychologist, were also more likely to go into remission and have fewer symptoms of
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