Sharing your problems with a trained professional in a clinical setting has long been a standard treatment for depression. But a new study suggests that talk therapy for depression may be less beneficial than previous studies suggested.
The new review of previously published science on treatments for depression was published this week in the journal PLoS One, according to the New York Times. The review notes that “publication bias,” the tendency for researchers to go public with findings that match their hypotheses while downplaying opposing data, is common in studies on talk therapy as well as studies used in testing anti-depressant drugs.
The new review found about a 10 percent over-estimate in the percentage of people who have an added chance of having their depression ameliorated by engaging in well-tested types of talk therapy. In other words, talk therapy can work, but not for as many people as previous studies have suggested.
The PLos One paper found that data from unpublished studies on treatments for depression, had they been included in published accounts, would lower the success rates of talk therapies.
The researchers suggested that depression patients should understand that some talk therapies are effective, as are some drug treatments, and that combinations of the two approaches appear to be the most successful.