A meta-analytic database of randomised trials on psychotherapies for depression

Background. The number of trials on psychotherapies for adult depression is very large and is quickly growing. Because of this large body of knowledge, it is important that the results of these studies are summarized and integrated in meta-analytic studies. More than a decade ago we developed a meta-analytic database of these trials, which was updated yearly through systematic literature searches. Recently, we developed a new version of this meta-analytic database, built on the systems and experience from our earlier database, but with completely new searches and improved methods. In this paper we will describe the methods and some first results of this database.
Description. We conducted systematic literature searches in bibliographical databases (PubMed, Embase, PsycINFO, Cochrane Register of Controlled Trials to identify all trials on psychotherapy for adult depression (deadline January 1st, 2019). We excluded trials on maintenance and relapse prevention, dissertations, collaborative care, and studies not published in English, German, Spanish or Dutch. After reading 21,976 records (16,701 after exclusion of duplicates), we included 661 randomized trials. We distinguished the following categories of trials: Psychotherapy versus pharmacotherapy (65 studies), combined treatment versus pharmacotherapy alone (46), combined treatment versus psychotherapy alone (29), combined treatment versus psychotherapy plus placebo (18), psychotherapy versus control (335), psychotherapy versus another therapy (109), psychotherapy for inpatients (34), unguided self-help interventions (48), comparisons of different treatment formats (38), cognitive bias modification (14) and other comparisons (99).
Over the years we have published several dozens of meta-analyses using this databases (including its previous versions).
Conclusion. Psychotherapy for depression is definitely the best studied type of psychotherapy for any mental health problem. We hope that our database can be used as a resource for researchers who want to conduct systematic reviews and meta-analyses of subgroups of these studies.

背景。针对成人抑郁症的心理治疗方法试验数量极为庞大且增长迅速。鉴于这一庞大的知识体系，对这些研究结果的总结和综合分析显得尤为重要。十多年前，我们开发了一个关于这些试验的元分析数据库，该数据库通过系统文献检索每年进行更新。最近，我们基于早期数据库的系统和方法开发了一个新的元分析数据库版本，尽管采用了全新的搜索和改进的方法，但仍然继承了早期数据库的经验。在本文中，我们将描述该数据库的方法和一些初步结果。描述。我们在书目数据库（PubMed、Embase、PsycINFO、Cochrane临床试验注册库）中进行了系统文献检索，以识别所有针对成人抑郁症的心理治疗方法试验（截止日期为2019年1月1日）。我们排除了关于维持治疗和复发预防的试验、学位论文、协作护理以及未用英语、德语、西班牙语或荷兰语发表的研 究。在阅读21,976条记录（剔除重复后16,701条）后，我们纳入了661项随机对照试验。我们将试验分为以下几类：心理治疗与药物治疗对比（65项研究）、联合治疗与单独药物治疗对比（46项）、联合治疗与单独心理治疗对比（29项）、联合治疗与心理治疗加安慰剂对比（18项）、心理治疗与对照治疗对比（335项）、心理治疗与另一种治疗方法对比（109项）、住院患者的心理治疗（34项）、非指导性自助干预（48项）、不同治疗模式的比较（38项）、认知偏差修改（14项）以及其他比较（99项）。多年来，我们已利用该数据库（包括其前版本）发表了数十篇元分析。结论。针对抑郁症的心理治疗无疑是针对任何心理健康问题的最深入研究类型。我们希望我们的数据库能成为研究人员进行系统性综述和元分析这些研究子集的资源。