Amount of therapist contact and outcome in a multidimensional depression treatment program

An 8-week multidimensional program of behavioral management, cognitive restructuring, and assertiveness training was administered to depressed outpatients either individually with a single therapist (n = 12), in two small groups (n = 11), or one large group (n = 11), or as bibliotherapy (n = 12). A randomly assigned waiting list control group was also included (n = 10). Follow-up assessments were conducted at 18 weeks. Principal findings were that 1) there were no significant pretreatment differences among groups, 2) all treated groups including bibliotherapy improved substantially over the course of treatment, 3) the waiting list control group was unchanged during this same period, 4) there were no significant differences among treated groups at termination or at follow-up, nor did these groups change significantly over the period of follow-up. Thus the effectiveness of this multidimensional program was supported, but its efficacy was not systematically influenced by amount of therapist contact.