Antidepressant medication is considered the current standard for severe depression, and cognitive therapy is the most widely investigated psychosocial treatment for depression. However, not all patients want to take medication, and cognitive therapy has not demonstrated consistent efficacy across trials. Moreover, dismantling designs have suggested that behavioral components may account for the efficacy of cognitive therapy. The present study tested the efficacy of behavioral activation by comparing it with cognitive therapy and antidepressant medication in a randomized placebo-controlled design in adults with major depressive disorder (N = 241). In addition, it examined the importance of initial severity as a moderator of treatment outcome. Among more severely depressed patients, behavioral activation was comparable to antidepressant medication, and both significantly outperformed cognitive therapy. The implications of these findings for the evaluation of current treatment guidelines and dissemination are discussed.

Although about half of patients with chronic forms of major depression have a response to short-term treatment with either nefazodone or a cognitive behavioral-analysis system of psychotherapy, the combination of the two is significantly more efficacious than either treatment alone.

We dedicate this study and manuscript to the late Neil S. Jacobson, Ph.D. Dr. Jacobson was the originator of this study and shaped every aspect of its inception and implementation. His untimely death in 1999 left an irreplaceable gap, but his ideas about behavior therapy and his commitment to empirical inquiry have continued to serve as an inspiration and guide. Sandra Coffman and Christopher Martell provided onsite supervision and treatment for the cognitive therapy and behavioral activation conditions, respectively. Steve Sholl and David Kosins provided cognitive therapy. Ruth Herman-Dunn and Tom Linde provided behavioral activation therapy. Linda Cunning, Steven Dager, Kerri Halfant, Helen Hendrickson, and Alan Unis provided pharmacotherapy. Carolyn Bea and Chris Budech coordinated the pharmacotherapy conditions. Peggy Martin completed medical evaluations for the study. Lisa Roberts, and Elizabeth Shilling assisted in the coordination of the study, and David Markley assisted in the training and supervision of the clinical evaluators. Patty Bardina, Evelyn Mercier, Mandy Steiman, and Dan Yoshimoto were project evaluators. Melissa McElrea, Kim Nomensen, and Eric Gortner provided research support. Marina Smith, Jennifer Jones, Patricia Symons, Sonia Venkatraman, and Melissa Wisler conducted the adherence ratings. Virginia Rutter has been an unwavering supporter of this research, for which we are extremely grateful. NIH Public Access AbstractThis study followed treatment responders from a randomized controlled trial of adults with major depression. Patients treated with medication but withdrawn onto pill-placebo had more relapse through one year of follow-up, compared to patients who received prior behavioral activation, prior cognitive therapy, or continued medication. Prior psychotherapy was also superior to medication withdrawal in the prevention of recurrence across the second year of follow-up. Specific comparisons indicated that patients previously exposed to cognitive therapy were significantly less likely to relapse following treatment termination than patients withdrawn from medication, and patients previously exposed to behavioral activation did almost as well relative to medication withdrawal at the level of a nonsignificant trend. Differences between behavioral activation and cognitive therapy were small in magnitude and not significantly different across the full two-year follow-up, and each was at least as efficacious as continuation medication. These findings suggest that behavioral activation may be nearly as enduring as cognitive therapy, and that both psychotherapies are less expensive and longerlasting alternatives to medication in the treatment of depression. KeywordsBehavioral Activation; Cognitive Therapy; Antidepressant Medication; Major Depression; Relapse; Recurrence Antidepressant medication (ADM) has been shown to prevent the return of symptoms associated with major depression for as long as it is continued or maintained (APA, 2000). However, there is little evidence that having taken ...

Gray matter lactate and Glx elevations in medication-free BD patients suggest a shift in energy redox state from oxidative phosphorylation toward glycolysis. The possibility of mitochondrial alterations underlying these findings is discussed and may provide a theoretical framework for future targeted treatment interventions.

Major depressive disorder is associated with considerable morbidity, disability, and risk for suicide. Treatments for depression most commonly include antidepressants, psychotherapy, or the combination. Little is known about predictors of treatment response for depression. In this study, 681 patients with chronic forms of major depression were treated with an antidepressant (nefazodone), Cognitive Behavioral Analysis System of Psychotherapy (CBASP), or the combination. Overall, the effects of the antidepressant alone and psychotherapy alone were equal and significantly less effective than combination treatment. Among those with a history of early childhood trauma (loss of parents at an early age, physical or sexual abuse, or neglect), psychotherapy alone was superior to antidepressant monotherapy. Moreover, the combination of psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy was only marginally superior to psychotherapy alone among the childhood abuse cohort. Our results suggest that psychotherapy may be an essential element in the treatment of patients with chronic forms of major depression and a history of childhood trauma.

Outcomes demonstrated response and adherence rates similar to research populations. These data indicate that TMS is an effective treatment for those unable to benefit from initial antidepressant medication.

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Objective:  This study was conducted to explore differences in cortical thickness between subjects with bipolar disorder and healthy comparison subjects using cortical surface‐based analysis. Methods:  Brain magnetic resonance images were acquired from 25 subjects with bipolar disorder and 21 healthy comparison subjects. Cortical surface‐based analysis was conducted using the Freesurfer application. Group differences in cortical thickness, defined by the distance from gray/white boundary to the pial surface, were assessed using statistical difference maps. Results:  Subjects with bipolar disorder exhibited significantly decreased cortical thickness in left cingulate cortex, left middle frontal cortex, left middle occipital cortex, right medial frontal cortex, right angular cortex, right fusiform cortex and bilateral postcentral cortices, relative to healthy comparison subjects (all p < 0.001). Duration of illness in bipolar subjects was inversely correlated with the cortical thickness of the left middle frontal cortex. Conclusions:  Cortical thinning was present in multiple prefrontal cortices in bipolar disorder. There was also cortical thinning in sensory and sensory association cortices, which has not been reported in previous studies using region‐of‐interest or voxel‐based morphometry methods. Cortical thinning observed in the current study may be related to impairment of emotional, cognitive, and sensory processing in bipolar disorder but longitudinal studies will be necessary to test this hypothesis.