Randomized trial of behavioral activation, cognitive therapy, and antidepressant medication in the acute treatment of adults with major depression.

By Sona Dimidjian, S. Hollon, K. Dobson, K. Schmaling, R. Kohlenberg, M. Addis, R. Gallop, J. McGlinchey, D. Markley, J. Gollan and 3 more. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 2006

1,576 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Antidepressant medication is considered the current standard for severe depression, and cognitive therapy is the most widely investigated psychosocial treatment for depression. However, not all patients want to take medication, and cognitive therapy has not demonstrated consistent efficacy across trials. Moreover, dismantling designs have suggested that behavioral components may account for the efficacy of cognitive therapy. The present study tested the efficacy of behavioral activation by comparing it with cognitive therapy and antidepressant medication in a randomized placebo-controlled design in adults with major depressive disorder (N = 241). In addition, it examined the importance of initial severity as a moderator of treatment outcome. Among more severely depressed patients, behavioral activation was comparable to antidepressant medication, and both significantly outperformed cognitive therapy. The implications of these findings for the evaluation of current treatment guidelines and dissemination are discussed.

Subfields: Clinical Psychology, Experimental and Cognitive Psychology, Pharmacology

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/69d8e6b4bf20e74dc75f709f3d453953796c19f0

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Citations in the corpus

Effort-Based Decision-Making in Major Depressive Disorder: A Translational Model of Motivational Anhedonia (2012, neutral): “the success of behavioral activation treatments for MDD, which specifically target motivational symptoms (Dimidjian et al., 2006).”
Metacognitive Therapy in Recurrent and Persistent Depression: A Multiple-Baseline Study of a New Treatment (2009, background): “Recent studies have isolated and tested the effects of the behavioral components of CBT (e.g., Dimidjian et al. 2006) and suggest that these are as effective as treatment using both cognitive and behavioral techniques.”
Effect Sizes for Growth-Modeling Analysis for Controlled Clinical Trials in the Same Metric as for Classical Analysis (2009, neutral): “…= (t2/( t2 + df))1/2 4.15 Atkins, Eldridge et al., 2005 d = β/(τ)1/2 29.36 Brown et al. 2005 d = β/(τ)1/2 29.36 Christensen et al., 2004 d = β/(τ)1/2 29.36 Dimidjian et al., 2006 d = β/(τ)1/2 29.36 Fraser et al., 2005 d = β/(τ + σ2)1/2 .89 Rye et al., 2005 d = β/σ .89 Sandler et al., 2003 d = t…”
Therapist Adherence/Competence and Treatment Outcome: A Meta-Analytic Review (2010, methodology): “For example, in their randomized placebo-controlled trial, Dimidjian et al. (2006) used the Cognitive Therapy Scale (CTS; Young & Beck, 1980) to assess the competence with which their cognitive therapy condition was implemented.”
Beyond words: Sensory properties of depressive thoughts (2013, background): “Somewhat more modest psychometric properties have been reported for major depressive disorder, generalised anxiety disorder, PTSD, specific phobia and panic disorder without agoraphobia (sensitivity: .80–.93; specificity: .44–.51; Donker et al., 2009).”
Handbook of cognitive-behavioral therapies (2009, neutral): “Donald H. Baucom, PhD, Department of Psychology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, North Carolina Aaron T. Beck, MD, Department of Psychology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Rinad S. Beidas, MA, Department of Psychology, Temple University, Philadelphia”
Climbing Our Hills: A Beginning Conversation on the Comparison of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and Traditional Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (2008, background): “Instead of waiting for dismantling studies that may occur long after mistakes are well ingrained (e.g., Dimidjian et al., 2006; Jacobson et al., 1996), ACT components and processes have been tested in experimental psychopathology studies from the earliest stages of empirical development.”
Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy to prevent relapse in recurrent depression. (2008, background): “Future trials will be able to base themselves on extant effect sizes and examine outstanding questions such as external validity in increasingly real-world settings, the costs of training MBCT therapists, the efficacy of augmenting m-ADM treatment with MBCT, and comparisons with other psychosocial a”
Reconsidering Anhedonia in Depression: Lessons from Translational Neuroscience (2010, background): “Initially developed as a component of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), Behavioral Activation (BA) differs primarily in its conceptualization of patient cognitions as a ruminative behavior (Dimidjian et al., 2006).”
The Valued Living Questionnaire: Defining and Measuring Valued Action within a Behavioral Framework (2010, background): “Valued living has been posited as a primary core process of ACT (Hayes et al., 2006; Strosahl, Hayes, & Wilson, 2004) and has been theoretically associated with other core processes, such as mindful acceptance, and many important outcomes, such as decreased psychological distress, increased…”
Construct Validity: Advances in Theory and Methodology (2009, background): “The third advance was the finding that behavioral interventions were effective for disorders of mood: when depressed individuals began participating in numerous, previously rewarding activities, their mood altered (Dimidjian et al. 2006).”
Open, aware, and active: contextual approaches as an emerging trend in the behavioral and cognitive therapies. (2011, methodology): “Work such as that of the late Neil Jacobson questioned the role of traditional cognitive methods (e.g., Dimidjian et al. 2006, Gortner et al. 1998, Jacobson et al. 1996) and led a major cognitive therapist to conclude, “there was no additive benefit to providing cognitive interventions in cognitive…”
Behavioral Activation Treatments for Depression in Adults: A Meta‐analysis and Review (2009, background): “Further, BA demonstrated an advantage over paroxetine by having a significantly lower attrition rate (Dimidjian et al., 2006). In an independent research program, Lejuez, Hopko, and Hopko (2001, 2002) and Lejuez, Hopko, LePage, Hopko, and McNeil (2001) developed Brief Behavioral Activation Treatment”
The origins and current status of behavioral activation treatments for depression. (2011, methodology): “BA was compared against cognitive therapy and pharmacotherapy in a placebo controlled design (Dimidjian et al. 2006).”