Universidad de Santiago de Compostela, Spain.
Psicothema. 2013 Feb;25(1):87-92. doi: 10.7334/psicothema2012.89.
Despite depression being a common problem among nonprofessional caregivers, no studies of prevention of depression targeting this population exist in the literature. The studies of indicated prevention of depression aim of this study was to assess the efficacy of a problem-solving intervention in preventing clinical depression in a sample of female caregivers.
A controlled randomized trial was conducted among 173 participants (mean age 53.9 years), 89 of whom were randomized to the intervention group and 84 (controls) to usual care. The intervention comprised five weekly 90-minute group sessions.
At post-treatment, depression symptoms in the intervention group had remitted significantly more than in the control group, with a large effect size ( d = 1.54). The proportion of participants showing clinically significant improvement was significantly larger in the intervention group (80.9% vs. 11.9% among controls), and fewer intervention-group participants had progressed to clinical depression during the study period (4.5% vs. 13.1% among controls). The intervention group also exhibited a significantly greater reduction in emotional distress and caregiver burden than the control group.
These findings attest to the short-term efficacy of the intervention.
尽管抑郁在非专业护理人员中很常见，但文献中尚无针对该人群的抑郁预防研究。本研究旨在评估一项问题解决干预措施在预防女性护理人员临床抑郁中的效果。
对 173 名参与者（平均年龄 53.9 岁）进行了一项对照随机试验，其中 89 名参与者被随机分配到干预组，84 名参与者（对照组）接受常规护理。干预措施包括每周 5 次 90 分钟的小组会议。
在治疗后，干预组的抑郁症状明显缓解，对照组明显缓解，效果显著（d=1.54）。干预组表现出明显临床改善的比例明显高于对照组（80.9%比对照组的 11.9%），且在研究期间，干预组进展为临床抑郁的人数也明显少于对照组（4.5%比对照组的 13.1%）。干预组的情绪困扰和护理人员负担也明显低于对照组。
这些发现证明了干预措施的短期疗效。
