Comparative effects of short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy: A meta-analysis.

Abstract

In a review of 19 clinically relevant comparative outcome studies published 1978-1988, short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy (STPP) was evaluated as to overall effects, differential effects, and moderating effects vis-à-vis no-treatment controls (NT) and alternative psychotherapies (AP), respectively. Overall, STPP was superior to NT at posttreatment, inferior to AP at posttreatment, and even more so at 1-year follow-up. STPP was inferior to AP in treating depression and, in particular, to cognitive-behavioral therapy for major depression. STPP was equally successful with mixed neurotics. As research quality increased, STPP grew less superior to NT. Furthermore, STPP decreased its overall superiority over NT and increased its overall inferiority to AT on a series of clinically relevant variables. Improvement in research quality from 1978 to 1988 was noted. Evidence, although limited, supported the view that STPP approaches do seem to differ along a few major dimensions.

Comparing Treatment Efficacy of Cognitive-Behavior Therapy and Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy in High-Quality Studies: A Systematic Review and Effect Size Approach

“…However, the results of the current systematic review suggest that STDP shows an advantage over CBT in depressive disorder from pretreatment to follow-up, contrasting with results of other meta-analyses that concluded to a disadvantage of STDP [8] or that the two treatment modalities were not different at follow-up [6]. Additional research is thus needed to clarify the comparison of long-term treatment efficacy of CBT and STDP in depression.…”

“…In addition, the therapist plays a more active role and the number of sessions is shorter in STDP than in LTDP [1]. Meta-analyses and literature reviews have investigated the efficacy of STDP in comparison to no treatment and other forms of psychotherapies [2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. The results of these studies are summarized in Supplementary Table 1.…”

“…Direct comparisons between CBT and STDP were investigated in only a few meta-analyses, and results were mixed. For example, one meta-analysis concluded that CBT was more efficacious than STDP in a variety of disorders including depression [8], whereas another concluded that STDP was as efficacious as CBT in depression [6]. The former meta-analysis was criticized for including studies with poor methodological designs [1], whereas the latter focused on a single disorder and included studies with designs that were not optimal (for example, treatments in one study were not manualized; treatment integrity was not always assessed by external objective raters).…”

La directividad en la relación terapéutica: análisis de la evidencia encontrada en investigación

“…Con relación a la psicoterapia psicodinámica a corto plazo Svartberg & Stiles (1991), en un metaanálisis, revisaron 19 estudios clínicamente relevantes publicados entre 1978 y 1988 que evaluaban los resultados y efectos diferenciales de la psicoterapia psicodinámica a corto plazo en comparación con el no-tratamiento y con psicoterapias alternativas (en su mayoría cognitivo-conductual, conductual y experiencial) de acuerdo a ciertas características del paciente, del terapeuta y de la terapia. Las características de la psicoterapia psicodinámica a corto plazo se condensaron en tres dimensiones principales, una de las cuales involucraba el estilo del terapeuta (interpretación de la transferencia vs. directividad-interpretación).…”

Psychoanalytic and psychodynamic therapies for depression: the evidence base

“…Furthermore, these gains were often sustained or had increased at longerterm followup. Svartberg & Stiles (1991), CritsChristoph (1992), Anderson & Lambert (1995) For mixed disorders, these three metaanalyses of all found STPP to be superior to no treatment or minimal treatment at both short and longerterm followups.…”