ReviewClinical psychology review2015
It's complicated: The relation between cognitive change procedures, cognitive change, and symptom change in cognitive therapy for depression.
Review in Clinical psychology review, 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT03796143 (A Randomized Controlled Trial), which is not on this map. Cited by 52 papers, 3 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.
A Randomized Controlled Trial (RCT) Comparing Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) Self-help Books for Depression
Who cites it
52 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 183 citations in OpenAlex.
- Availability of Internet-Based Cognitive-Behavioral Therapies for Depression: A Systematic Review.Behavior therapy · 2024Pooled it
- Cognitive restructuring and psychotherapy outcome: A meta-analytic review.Psychotherapy (Chicago, Ill.) · 2023Pooled it
- Mechanisms and moderators in mindfulness- and acceptance-based treatments for binge eating spectrum disorders: A systematic review.European eating disorders review : the journal of the Eating Disorders Association · 2019Pooled it
- Exercise priming to enhance therapeutic bond and behavioral activation in CBT for MDD: a randomized controlled target-engagement trial with remission signal.Journal of affective disorders · 2026Trial
- Feasibility Study of a Novel App-Based Anxiety Intervention for Autistic People.Autism research : official journal of the International Society for Autism Research · 2026Trial
- Mechanisms of Change in Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Adults With Binge-Eating Disorder: A Dynamic Structural Equation Modeling Approach.The International journal of eating disorders · 2025Trial
- Exploring mechanisms of change in the metacognitive training for depression.European archives of psychiatry and clinical neuroscience · 2024Trial
- Childhood-related PTSD: the role of cognitions in EMDR and imagery rescripting.European journal of psychotraumatology · 2024Trial
- Effect of modernized collaborative care for depression on brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) and depressive symptom clusters: Data from the eIMPACT trial.Psychiatry research · 2023Trial
- A Propensity Score Analysis of Homework Adherence-Outcome Relations in Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Depression.Behavior therapy · 2019Trial
- Efficacy of Guided iCBT for Depression and Mediation of Change by Cognitive Skill Acquisition.Behavior therapy · 2018Trial
- Mediators in the randomized trial of Child- and Family-Focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for pediatric bipolar disorder.Behaviour research and therapy · 2016Trial
- Changes in causal attributions and relationship representations: Are they specific or common mechanisms in the treatment of depression?Journal of affective disorders · 2016Trial
- Improved cognitive content endures for 2 years among unstable responders to acute-phase cognitive therapy for recurrent major depressive disorder.Psychological medicine · 2015Trial
- Trial
- Cognitive Restructuring for Depressive Symptoms Applied by Mental Health Nurses: Designing the Structure and Contents.International nursing review · 2026Article
- Targeting mechanisms of change as a path to precision psychotherapy for community settings.Psychotherapy research : journal of the Society for Psychotherapy Research · 2026Article
- Exploring client and clinician experiences of cognitive behavioural therapy for depersonalisation-derealisation disorder (CBT-f-DDD).BMC psychiatry · 2026Article
- How Are People Undergoing Dialysis Expected to Benefit From Cognitive Behavioural Therapy? A Realist Analysis.Health expectations : an international journal of public participation in health care and health policy · 2025Article
- Anxiety and Depression are Associated with More Distorted Thinking on Social Media: A Longitudinal Multi-Method Study.Cognitive therapy and research · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors at 1 institution in 1 country.
Funding
Abstract
Many attempts have been made to discover and characterize the mechanisms of change in psychotherapies for depression, yet no clear, evidence-based account of the relationship between therapeutic procedures, psychological mechanisms, and symptom improvement has emerged. Negatively-biased thinking plays an important role in the phenomenology of depression, and most theorists acknowledge that cognitive changes occur during successful treatments. However, the causal role of cognitive change procedures in promoting cognitive change and alleviating depressive symptoms has been questioned. We describe the methodological and inferential limitations of the relevant empirical investigations and provide recommendations for addressing them. We then develop a framework within which the possible links between cognitive procedures, cognitive change, and symptom change can be considered. We conclude that cognitive procedures are effective in alleviating symptoms of depression and that cognitive change, regardless of how it is achieved, contributes to symptom change, a pattern of findings that lends support to the cognitive theory of depression.
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.