Marital therapy for depression

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Abstract
Marital therapy for depression has the two‐fold aim of modifying negative interaction patterns and increasing mutually supportive aspects of couple relationships, thus changing the interpersonal context linked to depression. 1. To conduct a meta‐analysis of all intervention studies comparing marital therapy to other psychosocial and pharmacological treatments, or to non‐active treatments. 2. To conduct an assessment of the internal validity and external validity. 3. To assess the overall effectiveness of marital therapy as a treatment for depression. 4. To identify mediating variables through which marital therapy is effective in depression treatment. CCDANCTR‐Studies was searched on 5‐9‐2005, Relevant journals and reference lists were checked. Randomised controlled trials examining the effectiveness of marital therapy versus individual psychotherapy, drug therapy or waiting list/no treatment/minimal treatment for depression were included in the review. Quasi‐randomised controlled trials were also included. Data were extracted using a standardised spreadsheet. Where data were not included in published papers, two attempts were made to obtain the data from the authors. Data were synthesised using Review Manager software. Dichotomous data were pooled using the relative risk (RR), and continuous data were pooled using the standardised mean difference (SMD), and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated. The random effects model was employed for all comparisons. A formal test for heterogeneity, the natural approximate chi‐squared test, was also calculated. Eight studies were included in the review. No significant difference in effect was found between marital therapy and individual psychotherapy, either for the continuous outcome of depressive symptoms, based on six studies: SMD ‐0.12 (95% CI ‐0.56 to 0.32), or the dichotomous outcome of proportion of subjects remaining at caseness level, based on three studies: RR 0.84 (95% CI 0.32 to 2.22). In comparison with drug therapy, a lower drop‐out rate was found for marital therapy: RR 0.31 (95% CI 0.15 to 0.61), but this result was greatly influenced by a single study. The comparison with no/minimal treatment, showed a large significant effect in favour of marital therapy for depressive symptoms, based on two studies: SMD ‐1.28 (95% CI ‐1.85 to ‐0.72) and a smaller significant effect for persistence of depression, based on one study only. The findings were weakened by methodological problems affecting most studies, such as the small number of cases available for analysis in almost all comparisons, and the significant heterogeneity among studies. There is no evidence to suggest that marital therapy is more or less effective than individual psychotherapy or drug therapy in the treatment of depression. Improvement of relations in distressed couples might be expected from marital therapy. Future trials should test whether marital therapy is superior to other interventions for distressed couples with a depressed partner, especially considering the role of potential effect moderators in the improvement of depression. 憂鬱症的婚姻治療 憂鬱症的婚姻治療有兩個目的，修正伴侶間的負向互動，及增加雙方的相互支持，因此改善與憂鬱症相關的人際問題。 1.以後設分析比較婚姻治療與其他心理社會治療取向及藥物治療，或其他非積極性治療。 2.評估內在效度與外在效度。 3.評估憂鬱症婚姻治療的整體有效性。4.確定在憂鬱症治療中，透過婚姻治療產生效用的中介變項。 2005年5月9日搜尋CCDANCTRStudies，檢查相關的期刊與參考文獻列表。 以隨機對照試驗研究檢視憂鬱症的婚姻治療與個人心理治療、藥物治療或等候治療/不治療/最少的治療的有效性。半隨機對照研究也包括在內。 以標準化的電子表格取出資料。當數據不在出版的論文裡，會嘗試兩次向作者取得資料。資料以Review Manager軟體整合。二分項資料使用relative risk(RR)來統整，連續性的資料則以standardised mean difference (SMD)統整，並計算95%confidence intervals (CIs)。隨機效果模式(random effects model)則用於所有的比較。異質性則以正式的檢測進行，the natural approximate chisquared test。 有8項研究納入這篇回顧。但在婚姻治療與個別治療之間並沒有顯著差異，也沒有憂鬱症狀的連續性結果出現。有六個研究結果如下：SMD −0.12(95% CI −0.56 to 0.32) ，三個研究中維持在憂鬱狀態的個案比例，二分變項的結果：RR 0.84(95% CI 0.32 to 2.22)。與藥物治療相比，婚姻治療的中輟率低：RR 0.31(95%CI 0.15 to 0.61) ，但這個結果只有在一個研究當中有顯著的影響。與沒有治療/最小治療比較，顯示婚姻治療對憂鬱症狀有顯著的效果，有兩個研究支持：SMD −1.28 (95% CI −1.85 to −0.72)。有一個研究顯示對持續性的憂鬱症有較小地顯著效果。有些發現因為其研究方法學的問題而受影響，在幾乎所有的比較中，能夠分析的個案數過少，在這些研究當中的異質性都很高。 沒有任何證據顯示，婚姻治療在治療憂鬱症方面比個別治療或藥物治療有效或比較沒效。但期待藉由婚姻治療能夠改善痛苦的夫妻關係，未來的試驗應著重在檢驗婚姻治療在處理有憂鬱配偶的夫妻關係方面的改善，是否優於其他的處遇方式，特別是另一半的角色在改善憂鬱症狀上是否有潛在的調節作用。 本摘要由彰化基督教醫院陳美貴翻譯。 此翻譯計畫由臺灣國家衛生研究院(National Health Research Institutes, Taiwan)統籌。...