---
type: source
title: "CBT vs Antidepressant Continuation for Depression Relapse Prevention: Individual Participant Data Meta-analysis"
author: "Breedvelt, Warren, Segal, Kuyken, Bockting — JAMA Psychiatry"
url: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapsychiatry/fullarticle/2780290
date: 2021-08-01
domain: health
secondary_domains: []
format: research-paper
status: processed
processed_by: vida
processed_date: 2026-04-11
priority: medium
tags: [CBT, antidepressant, depression, relapse, psychotherapy, durability, sequential-therapy, behavioral-intervention]
extraction_model: "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4.5"
---

## Content

Individual participant data (IPD) meta-analysis from JAMA Psychiatry examining whether sequential psychological intervention during/after antidepressant tapering can substitute for antidepressant continuation in relapse prevention.

**Study design:** Selected RCTs comparing psychological intervention during/after antidepressant tapering vs. antidepressant monotherapy. IPD analysis allows examination of individual patient-level moderators.

**Key findings:**
- Sequential delivery of psychological intervention during/after tapering may be an effective relapse prevention strategy INSTEAD of long-term antidepressant use
- CBT and continued antidepressant medication (ADM-c) were BOTH superior to discontinued medication (ADM-d) in preventing relapse over 12 months
- CBT and continued medication did not differ significantly from each other in relapse prevention
- No moderators (clinical factors) were associated with differential risk of relapse — the CBT advantage holds across patient subgroups

**Durability principle:**
- CBT provides "enduring effects that extend beyond the end of treatment"
- CBT appears "as effective as keeping patients on medication" for relapse prevention
- The mechanism is skill acquisition: CBT teaches cognitive and behavioral strategies that patients retain after therapy ends

**Relapse rate context:**
- Antidepressant discontinuation (abrupt or rapid): ~34.81% at 6 months, ~45.12% at 12 months
- CBT after/during tapering: comparable protection to continued medication

## Agent Notes

**Why this matters:** This is the key study for the continuous-treatment model differential durability finding. The contrast is stark: antidepressant discontinuation → high relapse; CBT completion → protection comparable to continued medication. This means BEHAVIORAL interventions in depression can substitute for continuous pharmacotherapy in a way that has NO equivalent in metabolic disease (you cannot do "GLP-1 skills training" that allows patients to maintain weight loss after drug cessation).

**What surprised me:** The finding that CBT is AS EFFECTIVE AS continued antidepressant medication in relapse prevention — not just better than abrupt discontinuation. This is a stronger durability claim than I expected.

**What I expected but didn't find:** Evidence that CBT durability is absolute (it's not — CBT patients still relapse, just less than antidepressant-discontinuation patients). The protection is relative, not absolute.

**KB connections:**
- Central evidence for the continuous-treatment model differential claim being developed this session
- Contrasts with GLP-1 rebound (Session 20) and food-as-medicine reversion (Session 17): metabolic/pharmacological interventions revert; behavioral cognitive interventions provide durable skill acquisition
- Connects to [[the mental health supply gap is widening not closing]] — if CBT is as effective as continued antidepressants for relapse prevention, the gap in CBT access is especially costly

**Extraction hints:**
- The differential durability principle is the key claim: behavioral/cognitive interventions acquire durable skills; pharmacological interventions require continuous delivery to maintain effect
- Claim candidate: "Cognitive behavioral therapy for depression provides durable protection against relapse comparable to continued antidepressant medication because therapy builds cognitive skills that persist after treatment ends — unlike pharmacological interventions whose benefits reverse within months of discontinuation"
- This claim would be explicitly positioned as the EXCEPTION to the continuous-treatment model, sharpening rather than disconfirming it

**Context:** 2021 study, but the evidence has been confirmed by the December 2025 Lancet Psychiatry NMA (76 RCTs, 17,000+ adults). The CBT durability finding has replicated across multiple meta-analyses — this is robust evidence.

## Curator Notes

PRIMARY CONNECTION: Session 20's continuous-treatment model claim candidate; Lancet Psychiatry 2025 meta-analysis (archived separately)
WHY ARCHIVED: Provides the mechanism explanation for why behavioral/cognitive interventions can substitute for continuous pharmacotherapy in depression while metabolic interventions cannot: skill acquisition vs. drug dependence
EXTRACTION HINT: The skill-acquisition vs. continuous-delivery distinction is the conceptual contribution — not just that CBT works, but WHY it can be discontinued without full relapse (skills remain) vs. why antidepressants and GLP-1s cannot (no skill analog)
