Ioana Cristea

Ioana Cristea
Ioana is Associate Professor at Babes-Bolyai University, Cluj-Napoca and a Research Fellow at the University of Pisa, Italy. She holds a masters degree in Clinical Psychology, a Ph.D. in Psychology, and is a board certified cognitive-behavioral therapist. Her main research interests include critically appraising the efficiency and mechanisms of action of psychotherapy interventions.

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The Lancet Psychiatry Commission on psychological treatments #SeeingFurther

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Ioana Cristea highlights some of the key ideas from the recently published Lancet Psychiatry Commission on psychological treatments research in tomorrow’s science. She also raises a number of objections to the 50-page report, which we hope will generate some much needed discussion on this topic.

Look out for our #SeeingFurther podcast with the authors of the Commission and a Twitter chat at 12:30pm GMT on Monday 19th March.

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Tetris for PTSD: behavioural intervention unlikely to vaccinate against intrusions

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Ioana Cristea disputes the claims of a recent proof-of-concept RCT, which aims to prevent intrusive memories after trauma via a brief intervention involving Tetris computer game play in the emergency department.

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Cochrane find insufficient evidence to support the implementation of depression prevention programmes

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Ioana Cristea summarises the latest Cochrane review on CBT, third-wave CBT and IPT based interventions for preventing depression in children and adolescents

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Behavioural activation not inferior to CBT for depression: the COBRA RCT

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Ioana Cristea appraises the recently published COBRA randomised controlled trial, which concludes that behavioural activation is non-inferior to cognitive behavioural therapy for depression, and may offer significant cost savings.

This blog also features a podcast interview with the lead author: Professor David Richards from Exeter University.

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Web-based guided self-help can prevent or delay major depression

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Ioana Cristea is impressed by a large German randomised controlled trial published yesterday in JAMA, which shows web-based guided self-help to be effective in preventing or delaying the onset of major depression.

This blog also features a podcast interview with the lead author of the research, Professor Pim Cuijpers.

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Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy cannot substitute maintenance antidepressants for preventing depression relapse

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Ioana Cristea takes a closer look at a recent non-inferiority RCT, which compares mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) plus discontinued antidepressants versus MBCT and maintenance antidepressants.

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Cognitive therapies for depression in adults: let’s just stick to the facts

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Ioana Cristea reviews the NIHR-DC Highlight on cognitive therapies for depression, published online today, which summarises three NIHR-funded trials (REEACT, CoBalT and PREVENT) looking at cCBT, CBT and MBCT for depression in adults.

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Mindfulness-based interventions in primary care: absent but successful

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Ioana Cristea appraises a meta-analysis on the effectiveness of mindfulness in primary care. She finds that the evidence is insufficient to draw any reliable conclusions about the actual effectiveness of mindfulness-based interventions in primary care settings.

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Antidepressants vs placebo for depression: forget the gap

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Ioana Cristea considers the possible causes responsible for the apparent narrowing of the drug-placebo gap, which over the last 30 years has seen estimates of depression symptom reduction from antidepressants fall from 70% to 30%.

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