A meta-analysis of Prozac and three psychotherapies in the treatment of unipolar major depression

Seventeen years have passed since Smith and Glass’s paper "Meta-analysis of Psychotherapy Outcome Studies" (1977) influenced how researchers integrated cumulative knowledge. The problem is that no meta-analyses have been found which compare psychotherapeutic methods to the use of Prozac in the treatment of unipolar major depression. Prozac was chosen, specifically, due to its reputation as a new, very effective anti-depressant. This study used a meta-analysis to compare three psychotherapies with medication: 1) cognitive therapy, 2) behavioral therapy, 3) cognitive-behavioral therapy, and 4) the prescription of Prozac. New methods of meta-analysis advocated by Rosenthal (1984) and Wolf (1986) were integrated with Smith and Glass’s (1977) Original approach to analyze the outcome research. The results indicate that Prozac is more effective than psychotherapy in the treatment of unipolar major depression. Psychotherapy results were statistically significant (p=.05) for the subjects as own control condition, but not for the control condition. In the subjects as own control group, cognitive and cognitive-behavior therapy were statistically significant (p < .05). The effectiveness of Prozac may have been caused in part by a selection bias of subjects or other factors outlined in the discussion.

Name thesis:degree_name

Ph. D.

Level thesis:degree_level

doctoral

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Educational Research and Evaluation

Department dc:contributor.department

Educational Research and Evaluation

Grantor dc:publisher

Virginia Tech

Year dc:date.issued

1994

Author dc:creator

• Duncan, Stel S.

Chairs dc:contributor.committeechair

• Fortune, Jimmie C.
• Hutchins, David E.

Committee members dc:contributor.committeemember

• Impara, James C.
• Sporakowski, Michael J.
• Wolfle, Lee M.

Statement dc:rights

• In Copyright

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Language dc:language.iso

en

Dc Identifier Other

etd-03022006-093409

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:vtechworks.lib.vt.edu:10919/37453