ReviewClinical psychology review2009
The importance of functional impairment to mental health outcomes: a case for reassessing our goals in depression treatment research.
Review in Clinical psychology review, 2009. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 164 papers, 9 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
164 citing papers in PubMed, 9 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Psychotherapy, Antidepressants, and Combined Treatment for Depression: A Network Meta-Analysis on Social Functioning Outcomes.Psychotherapy and psychosomatics · 2026Pooled it
- Real-time experience: A systematic review of ecological momentary assessments of everyday functioning in major depressive disorder.Australian occupational therapy journal · 2026Pooled it
- Psychological interventions for preventing relapse in individuals with partial remission of depression: a systematic review and individual participant data meta-analysis.Psychological medicine · 2025Pooled it
- Are young people with primary social anxiety disorder less likely to recover following generic CBT compared to young people with other primary anxiety disorders? A systematic review and meta-analysis.Behavioural and cognitive psychotherapy · 2021Pooled it
- Migraine headache and depression in adults: a systematic Review and Meta-analysis.Neuropsychiatrie : Klinik, Diagnostik, Therapie und Rehabilitation : Organ der Gesellschaft Osterreichischer Nervenarzte und Psychiater · 2019Pooled it
- The effect of vortioxetine on overall patient functioning in patients with major depressive disorder.Brain and behavior · 2017Pooled it
- Canadian Network for Mood and Anxiety Treatments (CANMAT) 2016 Clinical Guidelines for the Management of Adults with Major Depressive Disorder: Section 3. Pharmacological Treatments.Canadian journal of psychiatry. Revue canadienne de psychiatrie · 2016Pooled it
- Pooled it
- Adjunctive atypical antipsychotic treatment for major depressive disorder: a meta-analysis of depression, quality of life, and safety outcomes.PLoS medicine · 2013Pooled it
- Reduction in reintegration stress among post-9/11 Veterans in a clinical trial for trauma-related guilt.Military psychology : the official journal of the Division of Military Psychology, American Psychological Association · 2026Trial
- A Randomized Evaluation of MoodFX, a Patient-Centred e-Health Tool to Support Outcome Measurement for Depression: Une évaluation randomisée de MoodFX, un outil de santé en ligne centré sur le patient pour soutenir la mesure du résultat dans la dépression.Canadian journal of psychiatry. Revue canadienne de psychiatrie · 2024Trial
- Application of an egocentric social network approach to examine changes in social connections following treatment for anxiety and depression: A novel measurement tool for clinical trials research?Social science & medicine (1982) · 2024Trial
- Amplification of Positivity Treatment for Anxiety and Depression: A Randomized Experimental Therapeutics Trial Targeting Social Reward Sensitivity to Enhance Social Connectedness.Biological psychiatry · 2024Trial
- The potential mediating role of anxiety sensitivity in the impact of mindfulness training on anxiety and depression severity and impairment: A randomized controlled trial.Scandinavian journal of psychology · 2023Trial
- Long-term outcomes at 24- and 36-month follow-up in the intervention arm of the randomized controlled trial of Prompt Mental Health Care.BMC psychiatry · 2022Trial
- Clinical Switching Strategies of Various Antidepressants to Vortioxetine in the PREDDICT Trial.The international journal of neuropsychopharmacology · 2021Trial
- Effectiveness of Prompt Mental Health Care, the Norwegian Version of Improving Access to Psychological Therapies: A Randomized Controlled Trial.Psychotherapy and psychosomatics · 2020Trial
- The Relationship Between Depression Symptoms and Anxiety Symptoms During Acute ECT for Patients With Major Depressive Disorder.The international journal of neuropsychopharmacology · 2019Trial
- Effects of levomilnacipran extended-release on motivation/energy and functioning in adults with major depressive disorder.International clinical psychopharmacology · 2016Trial
- Quality of life in major depressive disorder before/after multiple steps of treatment and one-year follow-up.Acta psychiatrica Scandinavica · 2015Trial
104 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Outcomes in depression treatment research include both changes in symptom severity and functional impairment. Symptom measures tend to be the standard outcome but we argue that there are benefits to considering functional outcomes. An exhaustive literature review shows that the relationship between symptoms and functioning remains unexpectedly weak and often bidirectional. Changes in functioning often lag symptom changes. As a result, functional outcomes might offer depression researchers more critical feedback and better guidance when studying depression treatment outcomes. The paper presents a case for the necessity of both functional and symptom outcomes in depression treatment research by addressing three aims-1) review the research relating symptoms and functioning, 2) provide a rationale for measuring both outcomes, and 3) discuss potential artifacts in measuring functional outcomes. The three aims are supported by an empirical review of the treatment outcome and epidemiological literatures.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.