Leichsenring F, Rabung S. The effectiveness of long-term psychodynamic psychotherapy: a meta-analysis. JAMA. 2008;300(13):1551-1565.
According to comparative analyses of controlled trials, LTPP showed significantly higher outcomes in overall effectiveness, target problems, and personality functioning than shorter forms of psychotherapy. With regard to overall effectiveness, a between-group effect size of 1.8 (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.7-3.4) indicated that after treatment with LTPP patients with complex mental disorders on average were better off than 96% of the patients in the comparison groups (P=.002). According to subgroup analyses, LTPP yielded significant, large, and stable within-group effect sizes across various and particularly complex mental disorders (range, 0.78-1.98).
This is wonderful for the field of psychology because it will push CBT and other more structured therapies to be more creative in considering psychodynamic psychotherapy as having worthwhile attributes. Maybe there will even be studies that incorporate a combination therapy...a girl can dream right?
There is also a great editorial on the article in the same issue:
Psychodynamic Psychotherapy and Research Evidence: Bambi Survives Godzilla?
Glass JAMA.2008;
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