%0 Journal Article
%T Anthroposophic therapy for chronic depression: a four-year prospective cohort study
%A Harald J Hamre
%A Claudia M Witt
%A Anja Glockmann
%A Renatus Ziegler
%A Stefan N Willich
%A Helmut Kiene
%J BMC Psychiatry
%D 2006
%I BioMed Central
%R 10.1186/1471-244x-6-57
%X 97 outpatients from 42 medical practices in Germany participated in a prospective cohort study. Patients were aged 20每69 years and were referred to anthroposophic therapies (art, eurythmy movement exercises, or rhythmical massage) or started physician-provided anthroposophic therapy (counselling, medication) for depression: depressed mood, at least two of six further depressive symptoms, minimum duration six months, Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale, German version (CES-D, range 0每60 points) of at least 24 points. Outcomes were CES-D (primary outcome) and SF-36 after 3, 6, 12, 18, 24, and 48 months. Data were collected from July 1998 to March 2005.Median number of art/eurythmy/massage sessions was 14 (interquartile range 12每22), median therapy duration was 137 (91每212) days. All outcomes improved significantly between baseline and all subsequent follow-ups. Improvements from baseline to 12 months were: CES-D from mean (standard deviation) 34.77 (8.21) to 19.55 (13.12) (p < 0.001), SF-36 Mental Component Summary from 26.11 (7.98) to 39.15 (12.08) (p < 0.001), and SF-36 Physical Component Summary from 43.78 (9.46) to 48.79 (9.00) (p < 0.001). All these improvements were maintained until last follow-up. At 12-month follow-up and later, 52%每56% of evaluable patients (35%每42% of all patients) were improved by at least 50% of baseline CES-D scores. CES-D improved similarly in patients not using antidepressants or psychotherapy during the first six study months (55% of patients).In outpatients with chronic depression, anthroposophic therapies were followed by long-term clinical improvement. Although the pre-post design of the present study does not allow for conclusions about comparative effectiveness, study findings suggest that the anthroposophic approach, with its recourse to non-verbal and artistic exercising therapies can be useful for patients motivated for such therapies.Depressive disorders are a major health problem, affecting one-fourth to one-t
%U http://www.biomedcentral.com/1471-244X/6/57