Title: To taper or top-up? Using individual participant data meta-analyses and decision tree modelling for risk stratification and personalisation of psychological interventions to prevent depressive relapse

Abstract: : Individual participant data meta-analyses (IPDMA) have in recent years been applied to a range of mental health conditions to understand individual differences in treatment response and aid the personalisation of interventions.

This presentation covers the results of a large-scale effort to collect and synthesise available data from randomised controlled trials studying the efficacy of psychological interventions versus control to prevent depressive relapse for people in remission from depression (see also: itfra.org). It will further describe how individual participant data could be used to potentially improve risk stratification using decision tree analyses.

It will reflect on the practical and methodological considerations of using IPDMA to aid the personalisation of interventions to individual participant characteristics. It will also cover plans for conducting IPDMA for preventing the onset and relapse of common mental health conditions.

Biography: Josefien Breedvelt, PhD is a Prudence Trust Research Fellow based at King's College London's Institute for Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry in the Stress and Development Lab.

She is interested in preventing the onset and relapse of common mental health conditions, especially in children and young people. The questions that drive her research are what works, why, for whom, when and how?

In trying to answer these questions she uses a range of research methods including individual participant data meta-analyses, longitudinal modelling of risk and protective factors, and RCTs. She has recently started to incorporate complexity science into her work following her role as Assistant Director and PostDoc at the Interdisciplinary Centre for Urban Mental Health, where she is still an Honorary Fellow. She also previously worked as Director of Analysis at the National Centre for Social Research.

Josefien is a member of the Consortium for the prevention of depression and coordinator of the International Taskforce for preventing relapse of depression. She currently serves as a scientific organising committee member for the European Congress of Psychology and is a board member of the European Association for Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy.

Website: https://sites.google.com/view/josefien-breedvelt/home

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