Meta-Analysis: Relapse Prevention Strategies for Depression and Anxiety in Remitted Adolescents and Young Adults

Objective: Depression and anxiety cause a high burden of disease and have high relapse rates (39%-72%). This meta-analysis systematically examined effectiveness of relapse prevention strategies on risk of and time to relapse in youth who remitted. Method: PubMed, PsycInfo, Embase, Cochrane, and ERIC databases were searched up to June 15, 2021. Eligible studies compared relapse pre-vention strategies to control conditions among youth (mean age 13-25 years) who were previously depressed or anxious or with >30% improvement in symptoms. Two reviewers independently assessed titles, abstracts, and full texts; extracted study data; and assessed risk of bias and overall strength of evidence. Random-effects models were used to pool results, and mixed-effects models were used for subgroup analyses. Main outcome was relapse rate at last follow-up (PROSPERO ID: CRD42020149326). Results: Of 10 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) that examined depression, 9 were eligible for analysis: 4 included psychological interventions (n = 370), 3 included antidepressants (n = 80), and 2 included combinations (n = 132). No RCTs for anxiety were identified. Over 6 to 75 months, relapse was half as likely following psychological treatment compared with care as usual conditions (k = 6; odds ratio 0.56, 95% CI 0.31 to 1.00). Sensitivity analyses including only studies with >50 participants (k = 3), showed similar results. Over 6 to 12 months, relapse was less likely in youth receiving antidepressants compared with youth receiving pill placebo (k = 3; OR 0.29, 95% CI 0.10 to 0.82). Quality of studies was suboptimal. Conclusion: Relapse prevention strategies for youth depression reduce risk of relapse, although adequately powered, high-quality RCTs are needed. This finding, together with the lack of RCTs on anxiety, underscores the need to examine relapse prevention in youth facing these common mental health conditions.

Automated summary

This meta-analysis examines the effectiveness of relapse prevention strategies on the risk and time to relapse in youth who have remitted from depression and anxiety. The results indicate that psychological treatment significantly reduces the risk of relapse, while antidepressants are also effective in preventing relapse in youth. However, the quality of the studies is suboptimal, and more high-quality randomized controlled trials are needed to confirm these findings.