Short-term psychoanalytic supportive psychotherapy

Short-term psychoanalytic supportive psychotherapy was developed in Amsterdam in 1992. It is a six-month treatment made up of 16 sessions based on psychoanalysis. Researchers in Amsterdam pooled data from three clinical trials to compare the effectiveness of this therapy to drug treatment and to a combination of the therapy and drugs in treating depression. There were no differences in symptom reduction between the therapy and the drugs although therapists and patients preferred the therapy. Combined therapy was found superior to drug therapy by patients, therapists and independent observers. As far as quality of life was concerned the patients found no differences between psychotherapy and drugs or between psychotherapy and combined therapy but they did find combined therapy superior to drugs.

de Maat, Saskia ... [et al] - Short psychodynamic supportive psychotherapy, antidepressants, and their combination in the treatment of major depression: a mega-analysis based on three randomized clinical trials Depression and Anxiety 25(7), 565-574