Are psychological and pharmacologic interventions equally effective in the treatment of adult depressive disorders?
OBJECTIVE: A large number of studies suggest that both psychological and pharmacologic therapies are effective in the treatment of mild-to-moderate depressive disorders. Whether both types of intervention are equally effective has not been established definitively. DATA SOURCES: A database was developed through a comprehensive literature search (from 1966 to May 2007) in which 6947 abstracts in PubMed (1244 abstracts), PsycINFO (1736), EMBASE (1911), and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (2056) were examined. Abstracts were identified by combining terms indicative of psychological treatment and depression (both MeSH terms and text words). For this database, the primary studies from 22 meta-analyses of psychological treatment for depression were also collected. STUDY SELECTION: For the current study, the abstracts of 832 studies were examined. DATA EXTRACTION: Thirty randomized trials were included in a meta-analysis that compared the effects of a psychological treatmen
