Four out of 10 core symptoms had to be present, along with depressed mood. Exclusion criteria were severe comorbid conditions of substance misuse or eating disorders or lack of interest in the provisional offer of befriending. Intervention Forty-three participants were assigned to befriending and 43 to a waiting list control group. Volunteers to befriend the participants were recruited through advertisements, were interviewed and trained by social workers, and were matched to the 43 women in the befriending group. Table 1 Befriending versus waiting list control in women with chronic depression.
Values are percentages unless indicated otherwise.
Main results Analysis was by intention to treat. Ten of these 18 women went into remission. There is a considerable choice of treatment modalities of proven efficacy for treating depression, including cognitive therapy, interpersonal psychotherapy, and drug treatments. We have also witnessed an explosion of counseling, an intervention with a much more slender evidence base. The size of the benefit for treated women who agreed to enter the trial suggests that it is of the same order of magnitude as for other proven treatments, with a number needed to treat of about four.