Abstract
Background
Few meta-analyses have focused on the effect of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT)
for depression in children.
Study Selection
Randomized controlled trials comparing CBT with control conditions for depression
in children (≤13 years old) were included.
Data Sources
Seven electronic databases (PubMed, Embase, CENTRAL, Web of Science, PsycINFO, CINAHL,
and LiLACS) were searched from inception to September 2015.
Data Extraction and Synthesis
The primary efficacy was defined as mean change scores in depressive symptoms, and
the second efficacy (remission) was a score below the threshold for a diagnosis of
depression, both after treatment and at the end of follow-up. We also measured acceptability
by the proportion of participants who discontinued treatment up to posttreatment.
Results
Nine studies with 306 participants were selected for this analysis. At posttreatment,
CBT was significantly more effective than control conditions in terms of primary efficacy
(standardized mean difference, −0.41; 95% confidence interval [CI], −0.64 to −0.18)
and secondary efficacy (odds ratio [OR], 2.16; 95% CI, 1.24 to 3.78). At follow-up,
the results were consistent with those of efficacy outcomes at posttreatment, with
a standardized mean difference of −0.34 and an OR of 2.04. CBT had no statistical
more all-cause discontinuations than the control group (OR, 0.69; 95% CI, 0.26 to
1.82). However, subgroup analyses found that CBT was only significantly more effective
than nontreatment, while it was not better than wait list or psychological placebo.
Conclusions
CBT seems to be more beneficial in the treatment of depression in children than nontreatment;
however, this finding is limited by the small size of the trials and low literature
quality.
Keywords
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Article Info
Publication History
Accepted:
August 13,
2016
Received:
February 19,
2016
Footnotes
The first 4 authors contributed equally to this article, and all should be considered first author.
Conflict of Interest: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Identification
Copyright
Copyright © 2016 by Academic Pediatric Association
