@article{MajicGutzmannHeinzetal.2013,
  author    = {Majic, Tomislav and Gutzmann, Hans and Heinz, Andreas and Lang, Undine E. and Rapp, Michael Armin},
  title     = {Animal-assisted therapy and agitation and depression in nursing home residents with dementia - a matched case-control trial},
  series = {The American journal of geriatric psychiatry : official journal of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry},
  volume    = {21},
  journal   = {The American journal of geriatric psychiatry : official journal of the American Association for Geriatric Psychiatry},
  number    = {11},
  publisher = {Lippincott Williams \& Wilkins},
  address   = {Philadelphia},
  issn      = {1064-7481},
  doi       = {10.1016/j.jagp.2013.03.004},
  pages     = {1052 -- 1059},
  year      = {2013},
  abstract  = {Objectives: To investigate the efficacy of animal-assisted therapy (AAT) on symptoms of agitation/aggression and depression in nursing home residents with dementia in a randomized controlled trial. Previous studies have indicated that AAT has beneficial effects on neuropsychiatric symptoms in various psychiatric disorders but few studies have investigated the efficacy of AAT in patients suffering from dementia. Methods: Of 65 nursing home residents with dementia (mean [standard deviation] age: 81.8 [9.2] years; mean Mini-Mental State Examination score: 7.1 [0.7]), 27 matched pairs (N = 54) were randomly assigned to either treatment as usual or treatment as usual combined with AAT, administered over 10 weekly sessions. Blinded raters assessed cognitive impairment with the Mini-Mental State Examination, presence of agitation/aggression with the Cohen-Mansfield Agitation Inventory, and depression with the Dementia Mood Assessment Scale at baseline and during a period of 4 weeks after AAT intervention. Results: In the control group, symptoms of agitation/aggression and depression significantly increased over 10 weeks; in the intervention group, patients receiving combined treatment displayed constant frequency and severity of symptoms of agitation/aggression (F-1,F-48 = 6.43; p <0.05) and depression (F-1,F-48 = 26.54; p <0.001). Symptom amelioration did not occur in either group. Conclusions: AAT is a promising option for the treatment of agitation/aggression and depression in patients with dementia. Our results suggest that AAT may delay progression of neuropsychiatric symptoms in demented nursing home residents. Further research is needed to determine its long-time effects.},
  language  = {en}
}
@article{NiemeyerMuschPietrowsky2013,
  author    = {Niemeyer, Helen and Musch, Jochen and Pietrowsky, Reinhard},
  title     = {Publication Bias in meta-analyses of the efficacy of psychotherapeutic interventions for depression},
  series = {Journal of consulting and clinical psychology},
  volume    = {81},
  journal   = {Journal of consulting and clinical psychology},
  number    = {1},
  publisher = {American Psychological Association},
  address   = {Washington},
  issn      = {0022-006X},
  doi       = {10.1037/a0031152},
  pages     = {58 -- 74},
  year      = {2013},
  abstract  = {Objective: The aim of this study was to assess whether systematic reviews investigating psychotherapeutic interventions for depression are affected by publication bias. Only homogeneous data sets were included, as heterogeneous data sets can distort statistical tests of publication bias. Method: We applied Begg and Mazumdar's adjusted rank correlation test, Egger's regression analysis, and the trim and fill procedure to assess the presence and magnitude of publication bias in all homogeneous data sets of systematic reviews published up to September 2010. Results: Thirty-one data sets reported in 19 meta-analyses fulfilled our inclusion criteria. Significant bias was detected in 5 (16.13\%; rank correlation test) and 6 (19.35\%; Egger's regression analysis) of these data sets. Applying the trim and fill procedure to amend presumably missing studies rarely changed the assessment of the efficacy of therapeutic interventions, with 2 exceptions. In 1 data set psychotherapy was no longer found to be significantly more efficacious than pharmacotherapy in reducing dropout at posttreatment when publication bias was taken into account. In the 2nd data set, after correcting for publication bias, there was no longer evidence that depressed patients without comorbid personality disorder profited more from psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy than patients with comorbid personality disorder. Conclusions: The results suggest that taken together, psychotherapy research for depression is only marginally affected by the selective reporting of positive outcomes. With 2 notable exceptions, correcting for publication bias did not change the evaluation of the efficacy of psychotherapeutic interventions.},
  language  = {en}
}