Long-Term Psychodynamic Talk Therapy Shows to be More Effective than Short-Term Treatment
October 7th, 2008 |
A GoodTherapy.org News Update Presented by Daniel Brezenoff, LCSW
A review of 23 studies that looked at the results of long-term, psychodynamic talk therapy concluded that such therapy improved the symptoms of chronic mental problems, including anxiety and borderline personality disorder, better than some shorter-term therapies.
The studies included a total of 1,053 clients undergoing weekly, twice weekly, or three times weekly session for at least a year and often much longer. Most of the clients had 50 or more sessions, and all were followed closely by researchers in the original studies.
The authors, writing in the October 1 issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association, recommended that researchers focus more on psychodynamic therapy, noting that the managed care system has been loathe to pay for such treatment, citing other studies that seemed to show the superiority of cognitive behavioral, short term therapy.
This new study is the first modern literature review of the results of psychodynamic work, and the studies it examined were not widely known.
“This review certainly does seem to contradict the notion that cognitive or other short-term therapies are better than any others,” said Bruce E. Wampold, chairman of the department of counseling psychology at the University of Wisconsin. “When it’s done well, psychodynamic therapy appears to be just as effective as any other for some patients, and this strikes me as a turning point” for such intensive therapy.
Psychodynamic therapy, one researcher told the New York Times by email, “showed significant, large and stable treatment effects which even significantly increased between the end of treatment and follow-up assessment.”
Perhaps surprisingly, the review found no correlation between patients’ improvement and the length of treatment.
Dr. Barbara L. Milrod, a professor of psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College and a psychodynamic therapist, said further research was desperately needed.
“Let’s be real,” Dr. Milrod told the Times. “Major medical centers have been shutting down psychodynamic training programs because there isn’t an adequate evidence base.”
Now the foundation of such a base of evidence has been laid, with more, hopefully, to follow.
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Therapist Seattle
2 comments so far
I saw this news in the New York Times and then again on Medline, and I was happy to see that the scientific world was finally validating the experience that I and so many others have had (over the last hundred years or so). Both as a long-time psychotherapist and a person who has undergone my own analysis, I was glad that someone reported on the quantification and measurement (since that’s the “coin of the realm” these days with so many third-party payers) of what we therapists and clients have been able to accomplish. Thank you for posting this news here!
Carol
Perhaps once the validity of these studies are proven then the health care industry will for once put the well being of their clients ahead of the monetary bottom line and determine that this is a preventive measure that should be paid for and could save them money in the long run. Just a thought.