Key result
Cognitive behavioural self-help yielded small effect sizes for depression and anxiety in people with long-term physical health conditions.
Why the study?
Does cognitive behavioural self-help improve depression, anxiety, and physical symptoms in people with long-term physical health conditions?
Meta-Analysis
Does cognitive behavioural self-help improve depression, anxiety, and physical symptoms in people with long-term physical health conditions?
Cognitive behavioural self-help provides limited benefit for depression and anxiety in patients with long-term physical health conditions, though effects may be blunted by low baseline symptom severity.
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
Small effects indicate limited benefit of CBT self-help for comorbid depression/anxiety in long-term conditions; extends self-help evidence but leaves open efficacy in clinically depressed samples.
BACKGROUND: Depression and anxiety are prevalent comorbidities in people with long-term physical health conditions; however, there is limited access to evidence-based treatments for comorbid mental health difficulties. PURPOSE: This study is a meta-analysis examining the effectiveness of cognitive behavioural self-help for physical symptoms, depression and anxiety in people with long-term conditions. METHODS: This study involves a systematic search of electronic databases supplemented by expert contact, reference and citation checking and grey literature. RESULTS: The meta-analysis yielded a small effect size for 11 studies reporting primary outcomes of depression (g = -0.20) and 8 studies anxiety (g = -0.21) with a large effect size (g = -1.14) for 1 study examining physical health symptoms. There were no significant moderators of the main effect. CONCLUSIONS: Limited evidence supports cognitive behavioural self-help for depression, anxiety and physical symptoms in people with long-term conditions. Small effect sizes for depression and anxiety may result from failure to recruit participants with clinical levels of these difficulties at baseline.
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Farrand et al. (2015) conducted a meta-analysis in Depression and anxiety in people with long-term physical health conditions. Cognitive behavioural self-help was evaluated on Depression (g -0.20). Cognitive behavioural self-help yielded small effect sizes for depression and anxiety in people with long-term physical health conditions.
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