Efficacy of short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy (STPP) in depressive disorders: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Abstract

Introduction: Depression is one of the leading diseases globally. It can severely interfere with daily and occupational functioning of people affected. Both pharmacological interventions and psychotherapy are used for adult depression. The aim of the review is to evaluate the efficacy of short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy (STPP) by comparing STPP with different types of interventions.

Materials and methods: A systematic review with meta-analysis on the efficacy of STPP in depressive disorders was performed.

Results: Meta-analysis findings confirm the superiority of STPP versus no interventions. The average effect size of depressive symptoms severity at the end of the treatment is -0.91 (95% CI: -1.49 - -0.33) in favor of STPP, while for clinical improvement of depressive symptoms is -0.78 (95% CI: -1.56 - 0.01). Results confirm a clear superiority of STPP to usual treatments unstructured. A mild superiority of efficacy of STPP on support psychotherapy emerged. Comparison of the efficacy of STPP vs cognitive-behavioral psychotherapy (CBT) shows little superior in case of STPP. No substantial differences in efficacy in case of STPP than control interventions emerged. Antidepressant therapy is resulted to be slightly more effective to STPP.

Discussion: While all the other results confirm current literature, this review shows no superiority of combined treatment than STPP only.

Limitations: The review has some limitations such as the lack of moderation analysis and the high heterogenicity of the type of the studies.

Conclusions: The results confirm the efficacy of STPP in depressive disorders and endorse the guidelines of National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE).

Keywords: depression; depressive disorders; meta-analysis; short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy; systematic review.