ReviewBJPsych open2022
Effectiveness of family psychoeducation for major depressive disorder: systematic review and meta-analysis.
Review in BJPsych open, 2022. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 16 papers.
What it found
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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
16 citing papers in PubMed, 33 citations in OpenAlex.
- Effectiveness of Remote Family Education and Support Program for Parents of Adolescents With Eating Disorders Based on Interpersonal Psychotherapy: A Randomized Controlled Trial.The International journal of eating disorders · 2025Trial
- Effectiveness of interventions to improve adherence to antidepressant medication in patients with depressive disorders: a cluster randomized controlled trial.Frontiers in public health · 2024Trial
- Who Benefits from Family Psychoeducation for Relatives of Adults with Major Depressive Disorder? Findings from a Randomized Controlled Trial.Journal of clinical medicine · 2026Article
- The Therapeutic Home Environment for Chronic Diseases: A Transdisciplinary Ecosystem for Achieving Migraine Freedom and Managing Comorbid Anxiety, Insomnia, and Chronic Pain.Healthcare (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- Efficacy of an online self-help programme with automated or individualised psychological support versus treatment as usual for caregivers of people with depression: a randomised, controlled, open-label, superiority trial.The Lancet regional health. Europe · 2026Article
- Psychoeducational treatments for obsessive-compulsive disorder: A narrative review emphasizing family-based approaches.World journal of psychiatry · 2025Review
- Telehealth Family Psychoeducation for Major Depressive Disorder: A Protocol for Intervention Co-Design and Feasibility Study.Nursing reports (Pavia, Italy) · 2025Article
- Understanding the experiences of family, friends and carers attending Recovery Colleges: focus group study.BJPsych open · 2025Article
- Learning about depression by watching gaming videos: a case study on the potential of digital games for psychoeducation and destigmatization.Frontiers in psychology · 2025Article
- The Effectiveness of Short-Term Group Psychoeducation for Patients With Bipolar Disorder in Japan.Cureus · 2024Article
- Remote family education and support program for parents of patients with adolescent and early adulthood eating disorders based on interpersonal psychotherapy: study protocol for a pilot randomized controlled trial.Journal of eating disorders · 2024Article
- Leo program, a short multi-family skill-based psychoeducational program for caregivers of relatives living with a severe mental disorder: a retrospective pilot study.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Article
- Mental Health Information Reporting Assistant (MHIRA)-an open-source software facilitating evidence-based assessment for clinical services.BMC psychiatry · 2023Review
- The Efficacy of Psychoeducational Family Intervention for Major Depression: Study Protocol of a Randomized Controlled Trial.Brain sciences · 2023Article
- Clinicians' perceptions of family involvement in the treatment of persons with psychotic disorders: a nested qualitative study.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2023Article
- Family Functioning is Associated with Post-Stroke Depression in First-Ever Stroke Survivors: A Longitudinal Study.Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment · 2022Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors at 2 institutions in 1 country.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundAlthough its effect has not been verified, family therapy - such as family psychoeducation (FPE) - is a widely used intervention for treating major depressive disorder (MDD). To our knowledge, no systematic review and meta-analysis exists that examines the effect of FPE on MDD.
aimsTo assess evidence on the effectiveness of FPE on depressive symptoms in people with MDD.
methodWe searched several databases - including PubMed, MEDLINE and Web of Science, among others - to identify eligible studies on the topic published up to March 2022. Our criteria included studies on participants with a primary MDD diagnosis and their family members and excluded studies on people with bipolar disorders and other mental illnesses. In the included studies, family members in the control groups did not receive FPE. Participants in both the intervention and control groups received standard treatment. Two researchers independently selected relevant publications, extracted data and evaluated methodological quality using the Cochrane risk of bias assessment tool and GRADE evaluation. The protocol was registered with PROSPERO (no. CRD42020185884).
resultsThe meta-analysis included five studies with 301 patients with MDD and their family members. The effect of FPE on patients' symptom severity, compared with the control condition, at 16 weeks was available for five comparisons of four randomised control trials (RCTs); a final follow-up was available for six comparisons of five RCTs. The meta-analysis showed a statistically significant improvement in patients' symptoms, compared with control, at 16 weeks (s.m.d. = -0.52, 95% CI -1.03 to -0.01) and at a final follow-up (s.m.d. = -0.53, 95% CI -0.98 to -0.08). The meta-analysis on the effect of FPE on family functioning showed a non-significant improvement both at 16 weeks and at final follow-up.
conclusionsFPE had a small but statistically significant effect on depressive symptoms in people with MDD, in both the short and long term. However, according to the GRADE framework, all outcomes are graded very low on certainty; therefore, more high-quality research is needed.
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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.