About This Project

I am doing a systematic review to see what works to stop depression from returning again. Depression has a huge burden on society, people and families and this is particularly the case for recurrent depression. I want to look at the literature together with a team and estimate the effectiveness of interventions that help prevent relapse which can then result in recommendations for policy and practice.

Ask the Scientists

What is the context of this research?

Depression is prevalent and presents a large cost to society, communities and health services. For example, in 2008 the cost to NHS services is estimated at 1.7 billion and the cost to the economy due to lost employment is estimated at 7.5 billion and figures are expected to rise over the next decade (McCrone et al., 2008).

There are several approaches aimed at reducing the risk for relapse for people with high risk of relapse. However, people with depression can be reluctant to take antidepressants on a long-term basis (Keller, 2002) and other preventative approaches can be costly and subject to differential regional access (Rykroft-Malone et al., 2014).

What is the significance of this project?

There has to this date been one systematic evaluation looking at the effectiveness of low intensity preventative approaches for recurrent depression which was done in 2012. This study will undertake a systematic review and potential meta-analysis to evaluate the effectiveness for relapse prevention interventions in recurrent depression, it will provide an up to date view of the effectiveness of low-intensity approaches such as peer-support, self-management and online therapies on relapse prevention.

The findings will help GPs and commissioners to make evidence based decisions on commissioning services and referrals. It will also help empower people with recurrent depression to help identify new self-paced approaches to help prevent a relapse.

What are the goals of the project?

This is a systematic review. We will look at all the literature on the topic and then grade the literature on risk of bias and quality following Cochrane risk of bias assessments and GRADE assessments. After this we will study all approaches and assess what works and what does not work as much for people. We will also see, if we have enough data, whether we can analyse what works for whom and in which settings.

We have started with preliminary searches in January and aim to finish in September. An open access paper and lay summary will be published at the end of the project.