Transdiagnostic treatment of depression and anxiety: a meta-analysis

Pim Cuijpers*, Clara Miguel, Marketa Ciharova, David Ebert, Mathias Harrer, Eirini Karyotaki

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to JournalArticleAcademicpeer-review

Abstract

Background In the past 10 years an increasing number of randomised trials have examined the effects of transdiagnostic treatments of patients with depression or anxiety. We conducted the first comprehensive meta-analysis of the outcomes of this emerging field. Methods We used the searches in PubMed, PsychINFO, Embase and the Cochrane library of an existing database of randomised trials of psychological interventions for depression to identify studies comparing a transdiagnostic treatment of patients with depression or anxiety with a control group (deadline 1 January 2022). We conducted random-effects meta-analyses and examined the effects on depression and anxiety at the short and longer term. Results We included 45 randomised controlled trials with 51 comparisons between a psychotherapy and a control group and 5530 participants. Thirty-five (78%) studies were conducted in the last 10 years. The overall effect size was g = 0.54 (95% CI 0.40-0.69; NNT = 5.87), with high heterogeneity (I2 = 78; 95% CI 71-83), and a broad PI (-0.31-1.39). The effects remained significant in a series of sensitivity analyses, including exclusion of outliers, adjustment for publication bias, for studies with low risk of bias, and in multilevel analyses. The results were comparable for depression and anxiety separately. At 6 months after randomisation the main effects were still significant, but not at 12 months, although the number of studies was small. Conclusions Transdiagnostic treatments of patients with depression or anxiety are increasingly examined and are probably effective at the short term.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)6535-6546
Number of pages12
JournalPsychological Medicine
Volume53
Issue number14
Early online date6 Jan 2023
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Oct 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This research received no specific grant from any funding agency, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s), 2023.

Keywords

  • Anxiety
  • depression
  • meta-analysis
  • psychotherapy
  • transdiagnostic treatment

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