Psychoeducation for major depressive disorders: a randomised controlled trial

Various psychological therapies have been shown to be effective for the treatment of mood disorders. Among them, family psychoeducation has demonstrated efficacy in reducing symptom severity and extending the time to relapse. We tested the efficacy of adding psychoeducation focussed on how to deal with the family's expressed emotion to treatment as usual (TAU) to prevent relapse among patients with remitted major depression. A total of 34 patients with major depressive disorders in full or partial remission were randomised to receive either group psychoeducation over six sessions, each consisting of a didactic lecture and group problem-solving (n=19), plus TAU or TAU alone (n=15). The primary outcome was relapse by Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders fourth edition (DSM-IV) criteria. Masked raters administered the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression-17 (HRSD-17). As many as 18 patients in the intervention group and 14 patients in the control group completed the study. Time to relapse was significantly longer in the intervention group than in the control group, with a risk ratio (RR) of relapse by 9 months of 0.12. At 9 months, there was a significantly greater decrease in the HRSD-17 score in the intervention group than in the control group. We demonstrated the effectiveness of patient psychoeducation on the course and outcome of major depressive disorders.