Conclusions : Psychoeducation is a psychosocial treatment that has been well documented as an adjunct to pharmacological therapy .
However , there are only a few studies regarding its effectiveness on adult patients with major depressive disorder .
Although the publications in this area are still very limited , the articles selected in this review suggest that psychoeducation is effective in improving the clinical course , treatment adherence , and psychosocial functioning of depressive patients
Objective : Pharmacological treatment is considered indispensable to major depressive disorder .
In spite of this , a significant number of patients do not respond adequately to treatment based only on medication , presenting high relapse and recurrence rates .
Therefore , psychosocial interventions , such as psychoeducation , have been increasingly recognized as an essential component in the treatment of depression , associated with pharmacological strategies .
Thus , the aim of the present systematic review was to evaluate the effectiveness of psychoeducation  for patients with unipolar depression , analyzing the evidence from the literature .
Time to recurrence after recovery from major depressive episodes and its predictors.
BACKGROUND Depression is a remitting but recurring disease . However , there is a paucity of prospect ively recorded data on the course of depression after recovery . METHOD A multi-centre prospect i ve serial follow-up study of an inception cohort of hitherto untreated unipolar major depression ( N = 95 ) for 6 years . We report the time to recurrence after recovery from the index depressive episode and their predictors . RESULTS The cumulative probability of remaining well without subthreshold symptoms was 57 % ( 95 % CI , 46 to 68 % ) at 1 year , 47 % ( 95 % CI , 36 to 58 % ) at 2 years and 35 % ( 95 % CI , 23 to 47 % ) at 5 years . The same without full relapse was 79 % ( 95 % CI , 70 to 88 % ) at 1 year , 70 % ( 95 % CI , 60 to 80 % ) at 2 years and 58 % ( 95 % CI , 46 to 70 % ) at 5 years . The median duration of well-interval from the end of the index episode to the beginning of the subthreshold episode was 19 - 0 months ( 95 % CI , 2 - 4 to 35 - 7 ) , and that to the end of the full episode was over 6 years . Residual symptoms at time of recovery predicted earlier recurrence . CONCLUSIONS The median length of the well-interval was much longer than previously reported in studies employing similar definitions but dealing with a more severe spectrum of patients . However , the sobering fact remains that less than half of the patients can expect to remain virtually symptom-free for 2 years or more after recovery from the depressive episode
Conclusions : Psychoeducation is a psychosocial treatment that has been well documented as an adjunct to pharmacological therapy .
However , there are only a few studies regarding its effectiveness on adult patients with major depressive disorder .
Although the publications in this area are still very limited , the articles selected in this review suggest that psychoeducation is effective in improving the clinical course , treatment adherence , and psychosocial functioning of depressive patients
Objective : Pharmacological treatment is considered indispensable to major depressive disorder .
In spite of this , a significant number of patients do not respond adequately to treatment based only on medication , presenting high relapse and recurrence rates .
Therefore , psychosocial interventions , such as psychoeducation , have been increasingly recognized as an essential component in the treatment of depression , associated with pharmacological strategies .
Thus , the aim of the present systematic review was to evaluate the effectiveness of psychoeducation  for patients with unipolar depression , analyzing the evidence from the literature .