Our final seminar of the semester took place last Thursday with Dr Ellen Driessen on "Depression treatment: the best match", hosted by Professor Ladislav Timulak.
"People suffering from depression have different treatment options, such as antidepressant medication and various psychological therapies. We know that these treatments work. However, we do not know which treatment works best for a given person. Accurate personalized treatment selection, matching individuals with depression to the treatment they are most likely to respond to, is urgently needed to reduce the tremendous personal and societal costs of this impairing disorder." - Dr Driessen
"Individual participant data meta-analysis (IPDMA) is a method to examine treatment effects by combining participant-level data from multiple clinical trials. In this presentation, I will argue that IPDMA can help us improve treatment selection for depression by increasing statistical power and generalizability. I will present findings of an IPDMA that examines who benefits specifically from psychodynamic therapy for depression." - Dr Driessen
"Moreover, I will present a new research project that uses IPDMA to improve personalized treatment selection of five widely used depression treatments (antidepressants, cognitive behavioral therapy, interpersonal therapy, psychodynamic therapy, and behavioral activation)." - Dr Driessen
The talk was followed by tea, coffee, sandwiches, and cake in the common room of the Lloyd building. You can find out more Dr Driessen and her research here.