Does baseline severity interact with the effects of psychotherapy for depression? A meta-analytic review
Pim Cuijpers; Mathias Harrer; Clara Miguel; Eirini Karyotaki; Davide Papola · 2026 · Journal of Affective Disorders
WASTE classifies this as Negative / Null Result Report · AI classification, approximate
The study found no significant effect — useful as a negative control or null benchmark for your own design.
Abstract
It is not yet clear whether baseline severity is associated with the effects of psychotherapies. We examined baseline severity at the study level in a large sample of randomized controlled trials comparing psychotherapies against a control condition for the treatment of depression. We used an existing large database of randomized trials comparing psychotherapies for depression with control groups ( www.metapsy.org ). We converted baseline severity scores across different depression measures into a common metric. We ran bivariable and multivariable meta-regression analyses to examine the associ
Abstract by Pim Cuijpers; Mathias Harrer; Clara Miguel; Eirini Karyotaki; Davide Papola, Journal of Affective Disorders (2026) — licensed CC BY 4.0.
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Metadata source: OpenAlex · DOI 10.1016/j.jad.2025.121106