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MDD Symptoms May Improve With Family Psychoeducation
Family psychoeducation offers a small but statistically significant improvement in depressive symptoms in people with major depressive disorder (MDD), according to a systematic review and meta-analysis published online in BJPsych Open.
“The results of the present study suggest that family psychoeducation for MDD can be expected to promote symptom-improving effects and have a recurrence-prevention effect when combined with other treatments,” wrote corresponding author Fujika Katsuki, PhD, RN, of the Nagoya City University Graduate School of Nursing in Nagoya, Japan, and coauthors.
The meta-analysis, believed to be the first to focus on the effect of family psychoeducation on patients with MDD, included 5 studies spanning a total 301 patients and their family members. All patients had a primary diagnosis of MDD and received standard treatment. In the control group, family members did not receive family psychoeducation.
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At 16 weeks, patients showed a statistically significant improvement in symptoms (-0.52 standardized mean difference) with family psychoeducation compared with control, according to the study. The gains continued through the long term, with a standardized mean difference of -0.53 at final follow-up between patients who did, and did not receive, family psychoeducation.
The meta-analysis showed no significant effect on family functioning or family members’ distress, researchers reported.
“Additionally, the studies included in the present study differed from each other in terms of intervention contents and the usual treatment type for patients in the intervention and control groups; the quality of most studies in this field was suboptimal…” the authors advised. “Because of the small number of studies, it was not possible to analyze each intervention and its control conditions separately using subgroup analyses. Therefore, these results should be considered with caution and verified through further research.”
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