The ineffectiveness of group interventions for female Turkish migrants with recurrent depression

We tested group interventions for women with a Turkish migration background living in Austria and suffering from recurrent depression. Sixty-six participants were randomized to: (1) self-help groups (SHG), (2) cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) groups, or (3) a wait-list (WL) control condition. Neither SHG nor CBT were superior to WL. On an individual basis, approximately one third of the participants showed significant improvements with respect to symptoms of depression. Younger women, women who had lived in Austria for longer, and those who had encountered a higher number of traumatic experiences, showed increased improvement of depressive symptoms. The results suggest that individual treatment by ethnic, female psychotherapists should be used instead of group interventions.