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This study examined the efficacy of a psychoeducational approach in treating unipolar depression. The vehicle of treatment was a course in Coping with Depression. An explicit educational experience, the course addressed several specific target behaviors (social skills, thinking, pleasant activities, and relaxation) as well as more general components hypothesized to be critical to successful cognitive-behavioral therapy for depression. Sixty-three individuals who met Research Diagnostic Criteria (RDC) for unipolar depression were randomly assigned to one of four conditions: class, individual tutoring, minimal contact, or delayed treatment control. Participants in the immediate treatment conditions were assessed pre- and posttreatment and at 1- and 6-month follow-up sessions; the delayed treatment group was assessed prior to and following an 8-week waiting period. Results indicated clinical improvement by all of the active treatment conditions compared to the delayed treatment condition. Differences between active treatment conditions were small, and some differences between high and low responders to treatment were found. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for future clinical use of this approach. Stimulated by recent theoretical developments, there has been an impressive proliferation of interventions and approaches for the psychological treatment of unipolar depression. Treatments derived from cognitive positions have been aimed at depressive thought processes (e.g., Beck, Rush, Shaw, Fuchs Sanchez, Lewinsohn, Zeiss, 1977), at increasing pleasant activities and time management relaxation skills (Lewinsohn, 1977), and at more general problemsolving skills (McLean & Hakstian, 1979). In
Brown et al. (Sun,) studied this question.