Behavioural activation therapy for depression in adults with non-communicable diseases

BACKGROUND: Depression is common in people with non-communicable diseases (NCDs) such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, and chronic respiratory conditions. The co-existence of depression and NCDs may affect health behaviours, compliance with treatment, physiological factors, and quality of life. This in turn is associated with worse outcomes for both conditions. Behavioural activation is not currently indicated for the treatment of depression in this population in the UK, but is increasingly being used to treat depression in adults. OBJECTIVES: To examine the effects of behavioural activation compared with any control group for the treatment of depression in adults with NCDs. To examine the effects of behavioural activation compared with each control group separately (no treatment, waiting list, other psychological therapy, pharmacological treatment, or any other type of treatment as usual) for the treatment of depression in adults with NCDs. SEARCH METHODS: We searched CCMD-CTR, CENTRAL, Ovid MEDLINE, Embase, four other databases, and two trial registers on 4 October 2019 to identify randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of behavioural activation for depression in participants with NCDs, together with grey literature and reference checking. We applied no restrictions on date, language, or publication status to the searches. SELECTION CRITERIA: We included RCTs of behavioural activation for the treatment of depression in adults with one of four NCDs: cardiovascular disease, diabetes, cancer, and chronic respiratory conditions. Only participants with a formal diagnosis of both depression and an NCD were eligible. Studies were included if behavioural activation was the main component of the intervention. We included studies with any comparator that was not behavioural activation, and regardless of reported outcomes. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: We used standard methodological procedures expected by Cochrane, including independent screening of titles/abstracts and full-text manuscripts, data extraction, and risk of bias assessments in duplicate. Where necessary, we contacted study authors for more information. MAIN RESULTS: We included two studies, contributing data from 181 participants to the analyses. Both studies recruited participants from US hospital clinics; one included people who were recovering from a stroke and the other women with breast cancer. For both studies, the intervention consisted of eight weeks of face-to-face behavioural therapy, with one study comparing to poststroke treatment as usual and the other comparing to problem-solving therapy. Both studies were at risk of performance bias and potential conflict of interest arising from author involvement in the development of the intervention. For one study, risks of selection bias and reporting bias were unclear and the study was judged at high risk of attrition bias. Treatment efficacy (remission) was greater for behavioural activation than for comparators in the short term (risk ratio (RR) 1.53, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.98 to 2.38; low-certainty evidence) and medium term (RR 1.76, 95% CI 1.01 to 3.08; moderate-certainty evidence), but these estimates lacked precision and effects were reduced in the long term (RR 1.42, 95% CI 0.91 to 2.23; moderate-certainty evidence). We found no evidence of a difference in treatment acceptability in the short term (RR 1.81, 95% CI 0.68 to 4.82) and medium term (RR 0.88, 95% CI 0.25 to 3.10) (low-certainty evidence). There was no evidence of a difference in depression symptoms between behavioural activation and comparators (short term: MD -1.15, 95% CI -2.71 to 0.41; low-certainty evidence). One study found no difference for quality of life (short term: MD 0.40, 95% CI -0.16 to 0.96; low-certainty evidence), functioning (short term: MD 2.70, 95% CI -6.99 to 12.39; low-certainty evidence), and anxiety symptoms (short term: MD -1.70, 95% CI -4.50 to 1.10; low-certainty evidence). Neither study reported data on adverse effects. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: Evidence from this review was not sufficient to draw conclusions on the efficacy and acceptability of behavioural activation for the treatment of depression in adults with NCDs. A future review may wish to include, or focus on, studies of people with subthreshold depression or depression symptoms without a formal diagnosis, as this may inform whether behavioural activation could be used to treat mild or undiagnosed (or both) depressive symptoms in people with NCDs. Evidence from low-resource settings including low- and middle-income countries, for which behavioural activation may offer a feasible alternative to other treatments for depression, would be of interest

Screening for Emotional Distress in Cancer Patients: A Systematic Review of Assessment Instruments

Screening for emotional distress is becoming increasingly common in cancer care. This systematic review examines the psychometric properties of the existing tools used to screen patients for emotional distress, with the goal of encouraging screening programs to use standardized tools that have strong psychometrics. Systematic searches of MEDLINE and PsycINFO databases for English-language studies in cancer patients were performed using a uniform set of key words (eg, depression, anxiety, screening, validation, and scale), and the retrieved studies were independently evaluated by two reviewers. Evaluation criteria included the number of validation studies, the number of participants, generalizability, reliability, the quality of the criterion measure, sensitivity, and specificity. The literature search yielded 106 validation studies that described a total of 33 screening measures. Many generic and cancer-specific scales satisfied a fairly high threshold of quality in terms of their psychometric properties and generalizability. Among the ultrashort measures (ie, those containing one to four items), the Combined Depression Questions performed best in patients receiving palliative care. Among the short measures (ie, those containing five to 20 items), the Center for Epidemiologic Studies–Depression Scale and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale demonstrated adequate psychometric properties. Among the long measures (ie, those containing 21–50 items), the Beck Depression Inventory and the General Health Questionaire–28 met all evaluation criteria. The PsychoSocial Screen for Cancer, the Questionnaire on Stress in Cancer Patients–Revised, and the Rotterdam Symptom Checklist are long measures that can also be recommended for routine screening. In addition, other measures may be considered for specific indications or disease types. Some measures, particularly newly developed cancer-specific scales, require further validation against structured clinical interviews (the criterion standard for validation measures) before they can be recommended

GOD AND THE WORLD: AN EASTERN ORTHODOX RESPONSE TO PROCESS THEOLOGY

The dissertation is a response to the teachings about God and the world of the process thinkers C. Hartshorne, J. B. Cobb, Jr., S. Ogden, N. Pittenger and D. D. Williams from the perspective of the theological tradition of the Eastern Orthodox Church, which is that of the Greek fathers and such contemporary theologians as V. Lossky, G. Florovsky, J. Meyendorff, B. Krivosheine and A. Schmemann. The author begins with an extended analysis of the nature and method of theology in the Eastern Orthodox tradition in comparison with process thought. He attempts to show that the orthodox Eastern tradition is not based on a particular philosophy, but develops its own concepts, categories and teachings on the basis of the lived experience of God in the Church. He then responds to the process doctrine of the dipolar character of God by analyzing the dipolar theology of the Eastern tradition which views God as supra-essentially hidden and yet truly manifested through His limitless divine actions and energies. He proceeds with an exposition of the Eastern Orthodox dogma of the Trinity: the three persons of Father, Son and Spirit who are eternally actualized in one divine being and life. The issues of divine personality, society and actuality raised by process thought are discussed in this chapter. Finally the author elaborates the relationship between God and the world through an analysis of the Orthodox teachings about creation, incarnation and deification in response to such key issues raised by process theology as those concerning divine perfection, providence, passibility, sympathy, suffering and love. The author concludes that Eastern Orthodox theology provides a vision of God as the dipolar, tri-personal Divinity who is in real relationship with the world; the God who is unchanging in his supraessential being, action and will, and who is yet eternally responsive to his creatures for whom he orders the world by his pre-eternal counsel; the God who, in the person of the incarnated Son and Word, becomes the real man Jesus who suffers, dies and rises in order to secure the world\u27s creative advance into novelty through an unending process of divinization