What is it about?
People with depression have different treatment options, such as antidepressant medication and various “talk therapies”. However, it is unclear which treatment is most effective for a given person. We bring together patient data from depression treatment studies worldwide. Based on these, we aim to develop a tool to help select the optimal treatment for people with depression based on their personal characteristics.
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Photo by Anthony Tran on Unsplash
Why is it important?
Because we do not know which treatment works will work best for an individual, people with depression and their clinicians usually need to take a trial-and-error approach in which they try different interventions consecutively to find the optimal regimen. This results in long treatment trajectories and delayed recovery. We do not know 'what works for whom' in depression treatment, because the number of participants in individual treatment studies typically is too small to examine this. By bringing together patient data from all available treatment studies worldwide, we overcome this critical limitation.
Perspectives
I am very grateful that 60+ research groups worldwide have shared the data of their studies for this project, making it possible to answer this important question.
Ellen Driessen
Radboud Universiteit
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Developing a multivariable prediction model to support personalized selection among five major empirically-supported treatments for adult depression. Study protocol of a systematic review and individual participant data network meta-analysis, PLOS One, April 2025, PLOS,
DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0322124.
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