Two-day group therapy showed short-term depression gains in small Romanian trial

A brief, intensive group psychotherapy reduced depressive symptoms among Romanian adults in a preliminary randomized controlled trial, with the strongest difference from a waitlist control appearing one week after the intervention. Brief Group Cognitive Evolutionary Therapy, or BGCET, produced an adjusted difference of −7.49 points on the depression subscale of the 21-item Depression Anxiety Stress Scales relative to the waitlist group. The estimate had a 95% confidence interval of −10.18 to −4.80, a p-value below .001 and a standardized effect of Hedges’ g = −1.25.

By three months, however, the adjusted difference had narrowed to −3.14, its confidence interval included zero, and the result was no longer statistically significant. The trial enrolled 61 adults presenting with depressive symptoms and randomly assigned them 1:1 to BGCET or the waitlist, with 31 participants assigned to therapy and 30 to control. BGCET was delivered over two consecutive eight-hour days, with groups of five to seven participants.

Cognitive Evolutionary Therapy is a structured psychotherapy grounded in evolutionary principles, and BGCET is a brief, intensive group adaptation of that approach. Depressive symptomatology was the trial’s primary outcome and was assessed at two co-primary timepoints: one week after the intervention and three months after it. The researchers analyzed these results with a constrained longitudinal data analysis linear mixed model equipped with cluster-robust standard errors.

At one week, participants assigned to BGCET had greater reductions in depressive symptoms than those assigned to the waitlist. At three months, the between-group estimate remained in the same direction but was less precise, with a 95% confidence interval of −7.79 to 1.52, p = .166 and Hedges’ g = −0.52. The trial therefore established a clear short-term difference in measured depressive symptoms, but it did not demonstrate that this advantage remained statistically significant at the later follow-up.

Related outcomes followed a broadly similar pattern, although their strength varied by timepoint and statistical adjustment. Compared with the waitlist, the BGCET group showed improvements in anxiety and life satisfaction at both one week and three months. Participants also showed improvement in perceived stress at three months, while sleep quality, an exploratory outcome, differed at one week.

Several of these results were no longer statistically significant after adjustment for multiplicity. The reported findings therefore support the clearest short-term signal for depressive symptoms, while the evidence for the other outcomes should be interpreted more cautiously because the analyses were exploratory or included multiple comparisons. Several features limit what can be concluded from the results.

The sample was small, the control condition was a waitlist rather than an active treatment, and the primary between-group difference was not statistically significant at three months. A waitlist comparison also means that the trial did not determine how BGCET performed against another structured treatment delivered under comparable conditions. The authors consequently characterized the findings as preliminary and called for a subsequent, more definitive controlled trial with an active comparator, longer follow-up and booster sessions.

The evidence supports further investigation of a compact group format for adults with depressive symptoms, but it does not establish durable superiority over established treatments or support conclusions beyond the symptoms and related outcomes measured in this trial.

Subject of Research: Preliminary randomized trial of brief group cognitive evolutionary therapy for adults with depressive symptoms

Article Title: Brief group cognitive evolutionary therapy for adults with depressive symptoms: a preliminary randomized controlled trial

Article References: Dobrovolschi, M., Giosan, C., & Deac, G. (2026). Brief group cognitive evolutionary therapy for adults with depressive symptoms: a preliminary randomized controlled trial. BMC Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1186/s40359-026-05816-4

Image Credits: AI Generated

DOI: 10.1186/s40359-026-05816-4

Keywords: depression, psychotherapy, group therapy, randomized controlled trial, cognitive evolutionary therapy, mental health, waitlist control, Romania, short-term effects, symptom reduction, Brief, group