Question: In adults with depression how effective are brief psychodynamic psychotherapies, compared to any other intervention, for improving patient outcomes?

Answer:

No definite clinical implications can be made from the available evidence. There is some evidence to suggest that that Short-Term Psychodynamic Psychotherapies (STPP) significantly decrease levels of depression compared to waitlist or usual care - prompting one author to suggest that STPP may be considered to be an empirically validated treatment method for depression. There is also evidence from a randomised controlled trial that STTP may be as equally effective as fluoxetine. The study evaluating this comparison is, however, only considered to be a preliminary investigation. Given the limited evidence base, study authors have consistently noted the need for more high quality RCTs to evaluate STPP - and the STPP variants (i.e. emotion-focused and more interpretive therapy modes).