A Better, Lower-Cost Option for Mild to Moderate Depression?

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A mindfulness-based cognitive therapy self-help (MBCT-SH) intervention in which patients were supported by a trained practitioner led to better clinical outcomes at lower cost than practitioner-supported cognitive-behavioral therapy self-help (CBT-SH), new research shows.

The findings suggest that "offering practitioner-supported MBCT-SH as an intervention for mild to moderate depression would improve outcomes and save money compared with practitioner-supported CBT-SH," the investigators, led by Clara Strauss, PhD, DClinPsy, with the University of Sussex School of Psychology, note.

Practitioner-supported CBT-SH is recommended in UK national treatment guidelines for mild to moderate depression. However, some patients' conditions don't respond, and dropout rates are high.

The Low-Intensity Guided Help Through Mindfulness (LIGHTMind) trial tested practitioner-supported MBCT-SH as an alternative.

The findings have "important implications" for the more than 100,000 people currently offered CBT-SH for depression in the Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) program each year and in publicly funded services elsewhere, the researchers note.

If translated into routine practice, "this would see many more people recovering from depression while costing health services less money," they add.

The study was published online March 22 in JAMA Psychiatry.

The trial included 410 adults (mean age, 32 years; 62% women) with mild to moderate depression who were recruited from 10 publicly funded psychological therapy services in England as part of the IAPT program.

Participants were given one of two established self-help workbooks. The Mindful Way Workbook: An 8-Week Program to Free Yourself from Depression and Emotional Distress, written by the pioneers of MBCT, or Overcoming Depression and Low Mood, 3rd Edition: A Five Areas Approach, which is a CBT-SH program widely used in IAPT.

Use of the self-help books was supported by six structured phone or in-person sessions with a trained psychological well-being practitioner.

The primary outcome was depression symptom severity at 16 weeks, which was determined on the basis of Patient Health Questionnaire 9 (PHQ-9) score.

At 16 weeks following randomization, MBCT-SH led to significantly greater reductions in depression symptom severity compared with CBT-SH (mean PHQ-9 score, 7.2 vs 8.6; between-group difference, 1.5 points; P= .009; d = −0.36).

MBCT-SH also had superior effects on anxiety symptom severity at 16 weeks.

At the 42-week follow-up, between-group effects on depression and anxiety symptom severity remained in the hypothesized direction but were nonsignificant.

This could be due in part by the greater postintervention psychological therapy accessed by participants in the CBT-SH group, the investigators note.

Practitioner-supported MBCT-SH was more cost-effective than supported CBT-SH.

On average, the CBT-SH intervention cost health services £526 ($631) more per participant than the MBCT-SH intervention over the 42-week follow-up. The probability of MBCT-SH being cost-effective compared to CBT-SH exceeded 95%, the researchers note.

Commenting for Medscape Medical News, Zindel Segal, PhD, professor of psychology, University of Toronto, Scarborough, cautioned against making too much of the differences between the groups, because CBT-SH "trended positive and had a pretty healthy effect size, it just never reached significance.

"I wouldn't say mindfulness drastically outperformed cognitive therapy. But cognitive therapy is a robust treatment in its own right, and so doing a little bit better is significant," Segal commented.

He also noted that, appropriately, the trial enrolled adults who were experiencing moderate depression and were not acutely ill. "That's one of the rationales for self-help compared to providing patients with a more resource-intensive group treatment.

"If you look at the needs of people with moderate depression, what you find is that for cognitive therapy to work, negative thoughts and feelings need to be pervasive in order to make use of the techniques," Segal explained.

"With mindfulness, you don't need any to have constant negative thoughts or feelings. Anything that arises in your experience serves as grist for mill in terms of concentration and focus," Segal said.

He also noted that mindfulness-based intervention is "more optimized" for people who are experiencing some measure of recovery or remission.

"It's well suited for that, as it trends towards the wellness spectrum. But for people who might have greater levels of acuity or severity, cognitive-behavioral therapy might be indicated," said Segal.

He also said the UK study findings are relevant to US patients with depression.

"While it's not disseminated in the same way through any kind of national program, the self-help books that are used are widely available, and the support that people were offered, either in person, telephone or email, could be easily delivered. This would be a very useful model," Segal said.

The LIGHTMind trial was funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research and the Brighton and Sussex Clinical Trials Unit. Strauss has received grants from Headspace, is research lead for Sussex Mindfulness Centre, and has been chief investigator on National Institute for Health and Care Research. Segal is one of the authors of the MBCT-SH workbook used in the study. Segal is one of the authors of the Mindful Way Workbook used in the study.

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