SynthesisEuropean psychiatry : the journal of the Association of European Psychiatrists2023
Does the use of pharmacotherapy interact with the effects of psychotherapy? A meta-analytic review.
Synthesis in European psychiatry : the journal of the Association of European Psychiatrists, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 6 papers, 1 of them a synthesis 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
6 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it, 7 citations in OpenAlex.
- The overestimation of the effect sizes of psychotherapies for depression in waitlist controlled trials: a meta-analytic comparison with usual care controlled trials.Epidemiology and psychiatric sciences · 2024Pooled it
- Clinical Effectiveness and Cost-Effectiveness of Blended Treatment for Major Depression Compared With Treatment as Usual Within Routine Care in Europe: A Noninferiority Randomized Controlled Trial.Interactive journal of medical research · 2026Article
- Comprehensive Model for Mental health Access and service use (CoMMA): A process model for technology-enhanced mental healthcare.Internet interventions · 2026Review
- The nature of depression and the biomedical model: ten questions in search of an answer.Translational psychiatry · 2026Review
- Pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy in depression - complementarity or exclusion?Postepy psychiatrii neurologii · 2024Article
- Ketogenic diets in clinical psychology: examining the evidence and implications for practice.Frontiers in psychology · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 3 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
backgroundIt is not clear if there is an interaction between psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy. First, there may be no interaction at all, meaning that the effects of both are independent of each other. Second, antidepressants may reduce the effects of psychotherapy, and third, antidepressants may increase the effects of psychotherapy. We examined which of the three is correct.
methodsWe conducted random effects meta-analyses of randomized trials comparing psychotherapies for adult depression with control conditions. The proportion of users of antidepressants was used as a predictor of the effect size in a series of meta-regression analyses, while adjusting for relevant moderators, such as type of control group and baseline severity.
resultsWe included 300 randomized controlled trials (353 comparisons between treatment and control; 32,852 participants). The main effect size of psychotherapy was DISCUSSION: We found support for the independent effects of psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy, which is good news from a clinical perspective. Apparently, patients can start with psychotherapy and do not have to be afraid that this will reduce the effects of the therapy.
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.