Home treatment has been proposed as an alternative to acute in-patient care for mentally ill patients. However, there is only moderate evidence in support of home treatment.

To test whether and to what degree home treatment services would enable a reduction (substitution) of hospital use.

A total of 707 consecutively admitted adult patients with a broad spectrum of mental disorders (ICD-10: F2–F6, F8–F9, Z) experiencing crises that necessitated immediate admission to hospital, were randomly allocated to either a service model including a home treatment alternative to hospital care (experimental group) or a conventional service model that lacked a home treatment alternative to in-patient care (control group) (trial registration at ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT02322437).

The mean number of hospital days per patient within 24 months after the index crisis necessitating hospital admission (primary outcome) was reduced by 30.4% (mean 41.3 v. 59.3, P<0.001) when a home treatment team was available (intention-to-treat analysis). Regarding secondary outcomes, average overall treatment duration (hospital days + home treatment days) per patient (mean 50.4 v. 59.3, P = 0.969) and mean number of hospital admissions per patient (mean 1.86 v. 1.93, P = 0.885) did not differ statistically significantly between the experimental and control groups within 24 months after the index crisis. There were no significant between-group differences regarding clinical and social outcomes (Health of the Nation Outcome Scales: mean 9.9 v. 9.7, P = 0.652) or patient satisfaction with care (Perception of Care questionnaire: mean 0.78 v. 0.80, P = 0.242).

Home treatment services can reduce hospital use among severely ill patients in acute crises and seem to result in comparable clinical/social outcomes and patient satisfaction as standard in-patient care.

Cognitive–behavioural therapy is efficacious in the treatment of major depressive disorder but response rates are still far from satisfactory.

To better understand brain responses to individualised emotional stimuli and their association with outcome, to enhance treatment.

Functional magnetic resonance imaging data were collected prior to individual psychotherapy. Differences in brain activity during passive viewing of individualised self-critical material in 23 unmedicated out-patients with depression and 28 healthy controls were assessed. The associations between brain activity, cognitive and emotional change, and outcome were analysed in 21 patients.

Patients showed enhanced activity in the amygdala and ventral striatum compared with the control group. Non-response to therapy was associated with enhanced activity in the right amygdala compared with those who responded, and activity in this region was negatively associated with outcome. Emotional but not cognitive changes mediated this association.

Amygdala hyperactivity may lessen symptom improvement in psychotherapy for depression through attenuating emotional skill acquisition.