Research Recommendations for Improving Measurement of Treatment Effectiveness in Depression

Frontiers in Psychology

Renaldo Bernard¹  Kaloyan Kamenov²  María Cabello²  Christine Rummel-Kluge³  Elisabeth Kohls³  José L. Ayuso-Mateos⁴  Mónica Nieto⁴ 

[1] Department of Medical Informatics, Biometry and Epidemiology – IBE, Research Unit for Biopsychosocial Health, Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität MünchenMunich, Germany;Department of Psychiatry, Universidad Autónoma de MadridMadrid, Spain;Faculty of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry, Leipzig UniversityLeipzig, Germany;Instituto de Investigación de La Princesa (IIS-IP), Hospital Universitario de La PrincesaMadrid, Spain;Instituto de Salud Carlos III, Centro de Investigación Biomédica en Red, CIBERMadrid, Spain;

关键词: depression;    functioning;    intervention;    outcome measure;    treatment effectiveness;   

DOI  :  10.3389/fpsyg.2017.00356

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Background: Despite the steadily escalating psychological and economic burden of depression, there is a lack of evidence for the effectiveness of available interventions on functioning areas beyond symptomatology. Therefore, the main objective of this study was to give an insight into the current measurement of treatment effectiveness in depression and to provide recommendations for its improvement.Materials and Methods: The study was based on a multi-informant approach, comparing data from a systematic literature review, an expert survey with representatives from clinical practice (130), and qualitative interviews with patients (11) experiencing depression.Results: Current literature places emphasis on symptomatic outcomes and neglects other domains of functioning, whereas clinicians and depressed patients highlight the importance of both. Interpersonal relationships, recreation and daily activities, communication, social participation, work difficulties were identified as being crucial for recovery. Personal factors, neglected by the literature, such as self-efficacy were introduced by experts and patients. Furthermore, clinicians and patients identified a number of differences regarding the areas improved by psychotherapeutic or pharmacological interventions that were not addressed by the pertinent literature.Conclusion: Creation of a new cross-nationally applicable measure of psychosocial functioning, broader remission criteria, report of domain-specific information, and a personalized approach in treatment decision-making are the first crucial steps needed for the improvement of the measurement of treatment effectiveness in depression. A better measurement will facilitate the clinical decision making and answer the escalating burden of depression.

【 授权许可】

Unknown