Citation

Stalder-Lüthy F, Messerli-Bürgy N, Hofer H, Frischknecht E, Znoj H, Barth J. Arch. Phys. Med. Rehabil. 2013; 94(7): 1386-1397.

Affiliation

Department of Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Bern, Switzerland. Electronic address: franziska.luethy@psy.unibe.ch.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.apmr.2013.02.013

PMID

23439410

Abstract

OBJECTIVE: To summarize empirical studies on the effectiveness of psychological interventions in long-term rehabilitation after an acquired brain injury (ABI) in reducing depressive symptoms. DATA SOURCES: A systematic literature search was conducted on MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Embase and CINAHL to identify articles published between January 1990 and October 2011. Search terms included the three concepts (1) "brain injur*" or "stroke," (2) "psychotherap*" or "therapy" or "intervention" or "rehabilitation," and (3) "depress*." STUDY SELECTION: Studies evaluating psychological interventions in patients after ABI were included. Time since injury was on average more than one year. Trials reported data on validated depression questionnaires before and after the psychological intervention. DATA EXTRACTION: Two independent reviewers extracted information from the sample, the intervention and the outcome of the included studies and calculated effect sizes (ESs) from depression questionnaires. Thirteen studies were included in a pre-post analysis. Seven studies were eligible for a meta-analysis of ESs in active interventions and control conditions. DATA SYNTHESIS: Pre-post ESs were significant in four of 13 studies. The overall ES of 0.69 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.29, 1.09) suggests a medium effectiveness of psychological interventions on depressive symptoms compared to control conditions. Moderator analysis of the number of sessions and adequate randomization procedure did not show significant ES differences between strata. Studies with adequate randomization did not, however, suggest the effectiveness of psychological interventions on depressive symptoms after ABI. CONCLUSIONS: Psychological interventions are a promising treatment option for depressive symptoms in long-term rehabilitation after ABI. Since only a few adequately randomized controlled trials (RCTs) exist, more RCTs are required to confirm this initial finding.

Language: en