Evidence map›Paper›PMID 20579335›Full record

SynthesisBMC medicine2010

Brief psychological therapies for anxiety and depression in primary care: meta-analysis and meta-regression.

John Cape, Craig Whittington, Marta Buszewicz, Paul Wallace, Lisa Underwood

Registry-linked trialOpen access · goldAbstract readMeta-AnalysisReview
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Synthesis in BMC medicine, 2010. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT04811521 (Patient-centered Treatment of Anxiety After Low-Risk Chest Pain in the Emergency Room), which is not on this map. Cited by 104 papers, 12 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
104citing papers in PubMed, 12 pooled it
18.8field-weighted citation impact, top 1% of its field
1 · What the graph read from 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.

2 · The registry

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.

NCT04811521 naunknown statusnot on this mapstarted 2021, after this paper: background citation

Patient-centered Treatment of Anxiety After Low-Risk Chest Pain in the Emergency Room

TypeinterventionalSponsorIndiana UniversityRan2021 to 2025Enrolled375ConditionsGeneralized Anxiety Disorder, Chest Pain, PanicArmsPrimary care follow-up, Online Self-Administered Anxiety Management Program plus Peer Support Guidance, Therapist-Administered Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

104 citing papers in PubMed, 12 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 290 citations in OpenAlex.

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  9. Collaborative care for depression and anxiety problems.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2012
    Pooled it
  10. Brief psychotherapy for depression: a systematic review and meta-analysis.International journal of psychiatry in medicine · 2012
    Pooled it
  11. Counselling for mental health and psychosocial problems in primary care.The Cochrane database of systematic reviews · 2011
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44 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

5 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.

John CapeCamden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust, St Pancras Hospital, 4 St Pancras Way, London NW1 0PE, UK. j.cape@ucl.ac.uk
Craig Whittington
Marta Buszewicz
Paul Wallace
Lisa Underwood
University College London · GBKing's College London · GB

Funding

No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.

6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundPsychological therapies provided in primary care are usually briefer than in secondary care. There has been no recent comprehensive review comparing their effectiveness for common mental health problems. We aimed to compare the effectiveness of different types of brief psychological therapy administered within primary care across and between anxiety, depressive and mixed disorders.

methodsMeta-analysis and meta-regression of randomized controlled trials of brief psychological therapies of adult patients with anxiety, depression or mixed common mental health problems treated in primary care compared to primary care treatment as usual.

resultsThirty-four studies, involving 3962 patients, were included. Most were of brief cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT; n = 13), counselling (n = 8) or problem solving therapy (PST; n = 12). There was differential effectiveness between studies of CBT, with studies of CBT for anxiety disorders having a pooled effect size [d -1.06, 95% confidence interval (CI) -1.31 to -0.80] greater than that of studies of CBT for depression (d -0.33, 95% CI -0.60 to -0.06) or studies of CBT for mixed anxiety and depression (d -0.26, 95% CI -0.44 to -0.08). Counselling for depression and mixed anxiety and depression (d -0.32, 95% CI -0.52 to -0.11) and problem solving therapy (PST) for depression and mixed anxiety and depression (d -0.21, 95% CI -0.37 to -0.05) were also effective. Controlling for diagnosis, meta-regression found no difference between CBT, counselling and PST.

conclusionsBrief CBT, counselling and PST are all effective treatments in primary care, but effect sizes are low compared to longer length treatments. The exception is brief CBT for anxiety, which has comparable effect sizes.

Indexed as

AdultAnxietyDepressionHumansPrimary Health CarePsychotherapy, BriefRandomized Controlled Trials as TopicTreatment Outcome

Identifiers

PMID20579335
PMCPMC2908553
OpenAlexW2090336640

What OpenQuestion holds

Textmetadata
LicenceCC BY
Read underepoch 390

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.