Background Expanded attempts to detect and treat depression among college students

Background Expanded attempts to detect and treat depression among college students a peak period of onset have the potential to bear high human capital value from a societal perspective because depression increases college withdrawal rates. of randomized trials comparing psychological treatments of depressed college students relative to control groups and compared effect sizes in these studies to those in trials carried out in unselected populations of depressed adults. Results The 15 trials on college students satisfying study inclusion criteria included 997 participants. The pooled effect size of therapy versus control was g = 0.89 (95% CI: 0.66~1.11; NNT = 2.13) with moderate heterogeneity (I2 = 57; 95% CI: 23~72). None of these trials had low risk of bias. Effect sizes were considerably larger when students were not remunerated (e.g. money credit) received individual versus group therapy and were in trials that included a waiting list control group. No significant difference emerged in comparing effect sizes among college students versus adults either in simple mean comparisons or in multivariate metaregression analyses. Conclusions This metaanalysis Oleuropein of trials examining psychological treatments of depressive disorder in college students suggests that these therapies are effective and have effect sizes comparable to trials carried out among depressed adults. module for Stata.[22] Subgroup analyses were conducted according to the mixed effects model [23] in which studies within subgroups are pooled with the random effects model while assessments for Oleuropein significant differences between subgroups are conducted with the fixed effects model. Multivariate and bivariate metaregression analyses were conducted according to the procedures developed by Borenstein and colleagues.[23] Publication bias was examined with Duval and Tweedie’s trim and fill procedure [24] which yields an estimate of the effect size after accounting for publication bias. We also conducted Egger’s test for the asymmetry of the funnel plot. RESULTS SELECTION AND INCLUSION OF STUDIES After examining Oleuropein a total of 16 365 abstracts (12 196 Oleuropein after removal of duplicates) we retrieved 1 756 full-text papers for further consideration. We excluded 1 Rabbit Polyclonal to MEF2C. 661 of the retrieved papers for the main analyses. The reasons for excluding studies are given in Physique 1. Fifteen studies on psychological treatments for college students met inclusion criteria (main analyses). Another 79 studies (with 121 comparisons between a treatment and a control group) on psychological treatments for unselected adults were included (for the comparison of effect sizes of psychological treatments of college students versus unselected adults with depressive disorder). This makes a total of 94 studies that were included in the analyses. Physique 1 presents a flowchart describing the inclusion process. Physique 1 Flowchart of inclusion of studies. CHARACTERISTICS OF INCLUDED STUDIES Selected characteristics of the included studies are presented in Table 1. In the 15 included studies among college students a total of 922 students participated (therapy conditions = 479 control conditions = 443) with a total of 22 comparisons between treatment and control conditions examined (one comparison = one study two comparisons = three studies and three comparisons = two studies). The average number of patients per condition was 26. TABLE 1 Selected characteristics of studies comparing psychological treatments of depressive disorder in college students with control conditions Students received compensation for participating in the study (money or study credits) in six of the 15 studies. Students were recruited through: (a) announcements in college newspapers (nine studies) (b) completion of self-report depressive disorder measures (four studies) and (c) referrals from college health services (two studies). In 14 of the 22 comparisons between a treatment and a control condition cognitive behavior therapy was used as the intervention four used behavioral activation and the remainder used another type of treatment. Fourteen comparisons used a group treatment format and eight studies utilized Oleuropein individual treatment. The number of treatment sessions ranged from one to 11. For the control group six studies used a waiting list five studies utilized care-as-usual and four utilized another control group. Thirteen research were conducted in america. Selected characteristics from the.