Rumination-focused cognitive-behavioural therapy for residual depression: phase II randomised controlled trial
Watkins and colleagues tested a therapy designed to target rumination specifically, rather than depression in general, in patients whose depression had persisted despite medication. Forty-two people were randomly assigned to usual care alone or usual care plus up to twelve sessions of rumination-focused cognitive behavioural therapy, built on behavioural activation principles. Adding the therapy significantly improved residual symptoms and remission rates. The finding that matters theoretically is the mediation: the improvement was carried by change in rumination, which is what the therapy was aimed at, rather than by some general benefit of extra attention. The authors state the limitation themselves and it is a real one. There was no control group receiving an equivalent amount of some other therapy, so the trial cannot separate the specific effect of targeting rumination from the non-specific effect of more treatment. It is a phase two trial, appropriately cautious, and the first evidence for the approach.
Watkins and colleagues tested a therapy designed to target rumination specifically, rather than depression in general, in patients whose depression had persisted despite medication. Forty-two people were randomly assigned to usual care alone or usual care plus up to twelve sessions of rumination-focused cognitive behavioural therapy, built on behavioural activation principles. Adding the therapy significantly improved residual symptoms and remission rates. The finding that matters theoretically is the mediation: the improvement was carried by change in rumination, which is what the therapy was aimed at, rather than by some general benefit of extra attention. The authors state the limitation themselves and it is a real one. There was no control group receiving an equivalent amount of some other therapy, so the trial cannot separate the specific effect of targeting rumination from the non-specific effect of more treatment. It is a phase two trial, appropriately cautious, and the first evidence for the approach.
Written from the abstract, OpenAlex.
What our sources record
Reproduced as it was written when this source was checked, figures and all.
42 participants with medication-refractory residual depression randomised to treatment as usual or treatment as usual plus up to 12 sessions; improvement mediated by change in rumination. The specific remission percentages often quoted for this trial were not verified for this article and are not printed.
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- Why You Lie Awake at 3am Replaying One Conversation, Why We Care
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The source
https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.bp.110.090282
DOI: 10.1192/bjp.bp.110.090282