The relative importance of diagnostic specific and transdiagnostic factors in evaluating treatment outcome of depressed patients

•Determinations of the efficacy of treatments for depression most commonly are based on changes in scores on symptom severity scales.•This narrow approach towards evaluating outcome is at variance with patients’ broader conceptualization of the factors deemed important in evaluating the outcome of depression treatment.•We examined the factors associated with depressed patients’ global ratings of improvement after a treatment intervention.•Changes in the well-being/life satisfaction and coping subscales were the only 2 subscales that were independently associated with the patient ratings of improvement. The change in the depressive symptoms subscale was not a significant independent predictor of patient improvement ratings.•When measuring outcome in the treatment of depression, a focus on symptom improvement is too narrow.