The Efficacy of Psychotherapy: Focus on Psychodynamic Psychotherapy as an Example

Abstract

The growing number of individuals seeking treatment for mental disorders calls for intelligent and responsible decisions in health care politics. However, the current relative decrease in reimbursement of effective psychotherapy approaches occurring in the context of an increase in prescription of psychotropic medication lacks a scientific base. Using psychodynamic psychotherapy as an example, we review the literature on meta-analyses and recent outcome studies of effective treatment approaches. Psychodynamic psychotherapy is an effective treatment for a wide variety of mental disorders. Adding to the known effectiveness of other shorter treatments, the results indicate lasting change in many cases, especially for complex and difficult to treat patients, ultimately reducing health-care utilization. Research-informed health care decisions that take into account the solid evidence for the effectiveness of psychotherapy, including psychodynamic psychotherapy, have the potential to promote choice, increase mental health, and reduce society's burden of disease in the long run.

Qualitative Analysis of Resources and Barriers Related to Treatment of Borderline Personality Disorder in the United States

“…Psychiatric comorbidity is an especially important consideration in relation to treatment outcomes. A number of independent large-scale longitudinal studies show that comorbid personality disorders, particularly BPD, not only affect treatment outcomes of major depressive disorder adversely (36, 37) but also lead to lower rates of remission and increased relapse rates (38–40). Additionally, the negative effects of BPD on treatment for depression seem to be unidirectional (39–42).…”

The effectiveness of psychodynamic psychotherapies: An update

“…What can be concluded about the efficacy of PDT? Intriguingly, different reviews of the same literature appear sometimes to reach dramatically different conclusions . There is a clear need for authors to declare interests, since the conclusions of reviews often appear to reflect the authors' theoretical orientation, just as the outcomes of individual studies appear to be highly correlated with the first author's affiliation .…”

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“…Zudem nahmen die Effekte mit längerem Katamnesezeitraum noch zu. Weitere Übersichtsarbeiten diskutieren die positiven Ergebnisse psychodynamischer Psychotherapien in Bezug auf wissenschaftstheoretische Überlegungen und versorgungsrelevante Fragestellungen [11] oder mit der Forderung nach einer Fokusverschiebung auf Wirkmechanismen [12].…”