Does baseline severity interact with the effects of psychotherapy for depression? A meta-analytic review

It is not yet clear whether baseline severity is associated with the effects of psychotherapies. We examined baseline severity at the study level in a large sample of randomized controlled trials comparing psychotherapies against a control condition for the treatment of depression. We used an existing large database of randomized trials comparing psychotherapies for depression with control groups ( www.metapsy.org ). We converted baseline severity scores across different depression measures into a common metric. We ran bivariable and multivariable meta-regression analyses to examine the association of effect sizes with baseline severity. We also examined response rates in treatment and control conditions. We…

• HE
  HORIZON EUROPE European Innovation Council