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Introduction: Limited access to psychological treatment is a pressing problem in the US, especially in more rural areas. One potentially underutilized resource is informal care from friends and family members. Although those in rural areas rely on informal care more than those in urban areas, there is little to guide interested caregivers in how they can be most effective. Methods: In this study, we conducted a pilot test of the Friends and Family for Mental Health Program, a mental health skills program we developed to enhance informal care and reduce psychological symptoms among informal caregivers. To provide an initial test of the potential benefits of this program, we evaluated the impact of the program on informal care skills, hope, psychological symptoms, and mental health skills. Results: Informal care skills and hope improved. Participants also reported reduced anxiety. We considered intervention feedback to inform intervention development. Discussion: Overall, findings provided preliminary support for the program and provide directions for future refinements. Conclusion: Though further research is needed, initial evidence suggests mental health skills programs directed at informal caregivers are both desired and beneficial in rural areas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Homework is a critically important relational process in CBT. • Homework engagement contributes to therapeutic outcomes. • Research is still needed to evaluate therapeutic strategies for promoting homework engagement. In commemoration of Dr. Aaron T. Beck's enormous contributions to our field, I comment on the state of our knowledge regarding the role of homework in cognitive behavioral therapy. The available evidence suggests homework is a contributor to positive therapeutic outcomes in cognitive behavioral therapy. Although therapists play an important role in facilitating clients' engagement with homework as they develop greater facility with CBT skills, little is known about the contributions of specific approaches to promoting homework engagement. I highlight some of these strategies and discuss the need for researchers to empirically evaluate them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Researchers have been interested in the role of negative affect (NA) and positive affect (PA) in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for depression. We examined cognitive change (CC) and these two affect variables across the course of CBT. Method: Patients (N = 125; Mage = 31.7, SD = 13.35; 60% female; 83% Caucasian) participated in 16 weeks of CBT for depression. They completed the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) and the Immediate Cognitive Change Scale at each session and a measure of affect before and after each session. Results: NA decreased (rate of change p <.001, d = −1.08) and PA increased (p <.001, d = 0.53) during treatment. CC predicted next-session PA, 0.06, 95% CI [0.01, 0.11], and NA, −0.09, 95% CI [−0.14, −0.04], and was concurrently associated with change in PA, 0.36, 95% CI [0.30, 0.42], and NA, −0.32, 95% CI [−0.42, −0.26], over the course of a session. Presession PA, 0.22, 95% CI [0.17, 0.26], and NA, −0.13, 95% CI [−0.17, −0.08], predicted postsession CC, while pre to postsession change in PA, −0.05, 95% CI [−0.09, −0.002], and NA, 0.06, 95% CI [0.01, 0.11], predicted change in depressive symptoms. Conclusions: Although NA and PA both change in CBT, the changes in PA are more modest. Both NA and PA predict symptom change, consistent with the possibility that increasing PA may be beneficial. CC and affect change are reciprocally related, suggesting that CC may contribute to affect change, while affect may also facilitate CC. What is the public health significance of this article?: Negative affect changes more than positive affect in cognitive behavioral therapy for depression, while both appear to play a critical role in reducing depressive symptoms. Cognitive changes experienced during sessions may result in improvement in positive and negative affect, and this mood improvement facilitates greater cognitive changes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Even though the early alliance has been shown to robustly predict posttreatment outcomes, the question whether alliance leads to symptom reduction or symptom reduction leads to a better alliance remains unresolved. To better understand the relation between alliance and symptoms early in therapy, we meta-analyzed the lagged session-by-session within-patient effects of alliance and symptoms from Sessions 1 to 7. Method: We applied a 2-stage individual participant data meta-analytic approach. Based on the data sets of 17 primary studies from 9 countries that comprised 5,350 participants, we first calculated standardized session-by-session within-patient coefficients. Second, we meta-analyzed these coefficients by using random-effects models to calculate omnibus effects across the studies. Results: In line with previous meta-analyses, we found that early alliance predicted posttreatment outcome. We identified significant reciprocal within-patient effects between alliance and symptoms within the first 7 sessions. Cross-level interactions indicated that higher alliances and lower symptoms positively impacted the relation between alliance and symptoms in the subsequent session. Conclusion: The findings provide empirical evidence that in the early phase of therapy, symptoms and alliance were reciprocally related to one other, often resulting in a positive upward spiral of higher alliance/lower symptoms that predicted higher alliances/lower symptoms in the subsequent sessions. Two-stage individual participant data meta-analyses have the potential to move the field forward by generating and interlinking well-replicable process-based knowledge. What is the public health significance of this article?: Improvements in the quality of the patient-rated alliance are associated with subsequent symptom reduction early in psychotherapy, and symptom reduction is associated with further improvement in the subsequent alliance. This meta-analysis provides empirical evidence for good clinical wisdom that collaborative qualities within the therapist–patient relationship and early distress remediation go "hand-in-hand." These results underscore the relevance of respectful, collaborative, and ethically sound care for mental health patients to positively impact therapy outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Research suggests that decreases in negative cognitions coincide with symptom improvements over the course of cognitive therapy (CT) of depression, but the role cognitive change (CC) plays in reducing symptoms remains controversial. Method: A total of 126 adults (mean age = 31.7, SD = 13.35; 60% female; 83% Caucasian) participated in CT for depression. Patients completed the Beck Depression Inventory–II and the Immediate Cognitive Change Scale at each session. At intake evaluation, maladaptive personality traits (Personality Inventory for DSM–5, Brief Form) and interpersonal problems (Inventory of Interpersonal Problems, Short Version) were assessed via self-report, and social skills were assessed through patients' evaluation of their performance following a series of behavioral role-plays (standardized interaction task). To rule out between-patient differences as potential confounds, our model disaggregated within- and between-patient components of CC and depression scores. Results: Within-patient CC significantly predicted within-patient change in depressive symptoms. This relation was moderated by patients' evaluations of their social skills and patients' level of interpersonal problems, with CC predicting symptoms more robustly for patients with fewer perceived social skills and for those with greater interpersonal problems. Maladaptive personality traits did not emerge as a moderator. Additional analyses showed the relation of CC and symptom change was particularly strong among those with social anxiety disorder and among those observers rated as having lower social skills. Conclusions: CC in CT sessions appears to foster subsequent depressive symptom reduction, especially among patients with lower levels of self-evaluated social skills and greater interpersonal problems. Cognitive changes experienced during cognitive therapy sessions appear to play a critical role in reducing depressive symptoms, with the importance of cognitive change being stronger among patients with low self-evaluated social skills and patients with high levels of interpersonal problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Although cognitive change has long been posited to drive symptom improvements in cognitive therapy (CT) of depression, whether it does so remains controversial. Methodological challenges have contributed heavily to the lack of resolution on this issue. Using a patient-reported measure of cognitive change, we tested the role of cognitive change in contributing to symptom change in CT. In addition, we tested whether therapists' use of cognitive methods intended to promote cognitive changes predicted these changes. We also tested the specificity of the relation of cognitive methods and cognitive change by examining other psychotherapy process variables. Method: In a sample of 126 patients who participated in CT of depression, patients rated immediate cognitive change (CC-Immediate) at the end of each session and sustained cognitive change (CC-Sustained) at the start of each subsequent session. Observers rated therapist adherence and alliance for the first five sessions. Depressive symptoms were assessed at each session. For all predictors, we disaggregated within- and between-patient effects. Results: Focusing on within-patient predictors, CC-Sustained mediated the relation of CC-Immediate and subsequent symptom change. In addition, both CC-Immediate and CC-Sustained predicted symptom change. Therapist adherence to cognitive methods was the only within-patient variable to predict CC-Immediate. Conclusions: These findings are consistent with the view that cognitive change contributes to symptom reductions in CT, and that therapists' use of cognitive methods contributes to cognitive changes during sessions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Little is known about the influence of patients' pretreatment characteristics on the adherence-outcome relation in cognitive therapy (CT) for depression. In a sample of 57 depressed adults participating in CT, the authors examined interactions between pretreatment patient characteristics and therapist adherence in predicting session-to-session symptom change. Method: Using items from the Collaborative Study Psychotherapy Rating Scale, the authors assessed 3 facets of therapist adherence: cognitive methods, negotiating/structuring, and behavioral methods/homework. Two graduate students rated Sessions 1-4 for adherence. Symptoms were assessed prior to each session with the Beck Depression Inventory-11. Moderators were assessed as part of patients' intake evaluations. Results: After correcting for multiple comparisons, patient gender remained a significant moderator of the relationship between cognitive methods and next-session symptom change; cognitive methods more strongly predicted greater symptom improvement for women as compared to men. Pretreatment anxiety and number of prior depressive episodes were significant moderators of the relationship between behavioral methods/homework and next-session symptom change, with greater behavioral methods/homework predicting symptom improvement more strongly among patients high in pretreatment anxiety and among patients with relatively few prior depressive episodes. Conclusions: This is the first study to provide evidence of how therapist adherence is differentially related to outcome among depressed patients with different characteristics. If replicated, these findings may inform clinical decisions regarding the use of specific facets of adherence in CT for depression with specific patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Previous studies of cognitive therapy (CT) for depression have examined therapist adherence and the therapeutic alliance as predictors of subsequent symptom change. However, little is known about these CT process variables when CT is delivered in combination with antidepressant medication. Method: In a sample of 176 depressed outpatients randomized to the combined condition of a clinical trial, we examined ratings of adherence and alliance as predictors of subsequent session-to-session symptom change across early CT sessions. Results: Both adherence to Behavioral Methods/Homework and the therapeutic alliance significantly predicted session-to-session symptom change. In models in which patients' medication regimen and prior symptom change were covaried, only Behavioral Methods/ Homework remained a significant predictor of subsequent symptom change. Conclusions: Our findings highlight the utility of Behavioral Methods/Homework in combined treatment for promoting early session-to-session symptom change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: In this Phase II trial, we evaluated a novel psychological treatment for depressed patients coping with the stresses of cancer. Effectiveness of a combined biobehavioral intervention (BBI) and cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) was studied. Method: Participants were 36 cancer survivors (mean age = 49 years; 88% Caucasian; 92% female) diagnosed with major depressive disorder. A single group pre-post design was used. Treatment consisted of up to 20 individual 75-mm combined BBI/CBT sessions. Outcomes were change in interviewer (Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression; Williams, 1988) and self-rated depressive symptoms (Beck Depression Inventory-Second Edition; Beck, Steer, & Brown, 1996) as well as change in cancer relevant symptoms (Fatigue Symptom Inventory [Hann et al., 19981 and Brief Pain Questionnaire [Daut, Cleeland, & Flanery, 19831) and quality of life (Medical Outcomes Study Short Form-36; Ware et al., 1995). Mixed-effects modeling, a reliability change index, and generalized linear models were used. All analyses were intent-to-treat. Results: Depressive symptoms significantly improved. In addition, 19 of 21 study completers met criteria for remission. Significant improvements were also noted in fatigue and mental health quality of life. Both concurrent anxiety disorders and high levels of cancer stress (Impact of Events Scale; Horowitz, Wilner, & Alvarez, 1979) were each associated with beginning and concluding treatment with greater depressive symptoms. Conclusions: CBT components were successfully incorporated into a previously efficacious intervention for reducing cancer stress. The BBI/CBT intervention warrants further research in evaluating its efficacy compared with well-established treatments for depression. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: The efficacy of cognitive therapy (CT) for depression has been well established. Measures of the adequacy of therapists' delivery of treatment are critical to facilitating therapist training and treatment dissemination. While some studies have shown an association between CT competence and outcome, researchers have yet to address whether competence ratings predict subsequent outcomes. Method: In a sample of 60 moderately to severely depressed outpatients from a clinical trial, we examined competence ratings (using the Cognitive Therapy Scale) as a predictor of subsequent symptom change. Results: Competence ratings predicted session-to-session symptom change early in treatment. In analyses focused on prediction of symptom change following 4 early sessions through the end of 16 weeks of treatment, competence was shown to be a significant predictor of evaluator-rated end-of-treatment depressive symptom severity and was predictive of self-reported symptom severity at the level of a nonsignificant trend. To investigate whether competence is more important to clients with specific complicating features, we examined 4 patient characteristics as potential moderators of the competence-outcome relation. Competence was more highly related to subsequent outcome for patients with higher anxiety, an earlier age of onset, and (at a trend level) patients with a chronic form of depression (chronic depression or dysthymia) than for those patients without these characteristics. Competence ratings were not more predictive of subsequent outcomes among patients who met (vs. those who did not meet) criteria for a personality disorder (i.e., among personality disorders represented in the clinical trial). Conclusions: These findings provide support for the potential utility of CT competence ratings in applied settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cognitive therapy (CT) for depression is designed to teach patients material that is believed to help prevent relapse following successful treatment. This study of 35 moderately to severely depressed patients who responded to CT provides the 1st evidence to suggest that both development and independent use of these competencies predict reduced risk for relapse. Among patients who responded to treatment, both CT coping skills and in-session evidence of the independent implementation of CT material predicted lower risk for relapse in the year following treatment. These relationships were not accounted for by either symptom severity at the end of treatment or symptom change from pre- to posttreatment. Self-esteem, assessed at posttreatment, failed to predict risk for relapse in the year following treatment. Thus, CT coping skills and independent use of CT principles, but not overall satisfaction with oneself, appear to play an important role in relapse prevention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]