The Coping With Depression Course: Review and future directions.

Abstract
Over the past two decades, cognitive-behavioural interventions have been demonstrated to be safe and effective treatments for unipolar depression. More recent investigations have south to identify cost-effective methods of offering these treatments. One of these is the Coping With Depression (CWD) Course, a multi-modal, group-psychoeducational treatment. The theoretical background of the CWD Course is discussed, as well as the specific course content and outcome study results. Also described are several modified versions of the CWD Course, developed for use with depressed adolescents and elderly, as well as a prevention version for use with individuals at elevated risk for developing depression (e.g., low-income medical outpatients, older American Indians, etc.). Suggestions for future research include replication of outcome results and establishing generalizability to non-research clinical settings and with diagnostically more heterogeneous populations, and comparing the CWD Course to other established treatments for unipolar depression (e.g., anti-depressant medication, Interpersonal Therapy). Closing comments focus on the characteristics of patients who do not respond well to the CES-course and those patients who relapse after the termination of treatment.