Objectives: Interpersonal problems are a fundamental feature of depression, but study-level meta-analyses of their association with treatment outcome have been limited by heterogeneity in primary studies' analyses and reported results. We conducted a pre-registered individual participant data meta-analysis (IPD-MA) to examine this relationship for adult depression. This meta-analytic strategy can reduce variability by standardizing data analysis across primary studies. Methods: We included studies examining the efficacy of five treatments for adult depression and assessing interpersonal problems at baseline. One-stage IPD-MA was conducted with three-level mixed models to determine whether baseline overall interpersonal distress, agency, and communion predicted depressive symptom level at post-treatment, 12-month, and 24-month follow-up. The moderating effect of treatment type was also investigated. Results: Ten studies (including n = 1282 participants) met inclusion criteria. Only overall interpersonal distress was negatively related with outcomes at post-treatment (γ = 0.11, CI95[0.06, 0.16], r = 0.11), 12-month follow-up (γ = 0.17, CI95[0.08, 0.25], r = 0.17), and 24-month follow-up (γ = 0.16, CI95[0.05, 0.26], r = 0.16), indicative of smaller effect sizes. The agency and communion dimensions were not significantly related to outcome. Treatment type did not significantly moderate interpersonal distress-outcome associations. Discussion: Results show a small association between patient baseline overall interpersonal distress and subsequent depression treatment outcome in brief treatments for depression. Further studies might require to account for therapist effects.

There is a growing interest in clinical interventions targeting emotion regulation difficulties across mental health conditions. Experiential dynamic therapies (EDTs) are transdiagnostic, affect-focused, short-term psychodynamic therapy models that emphasize in-session emotional processing. This review provides a 10-year update on the efficacy of EDTs for mood, anxiety, personality and somatic symptom disorders in adults and children/adolescents. A comprehensive search identified 57 randomized controlled trials (n = 4330) conducted in Western (k = 38; n = 3178) and non-Western countries (k = 19; n = 1152) between 1978 and 2024. Random-effects meta-analyses on primary outcomes indicated large, significant effects for EDTs compared to inactive controls at post-treatment (Hedge's g = −0.96; k = 41) and follow-up (g = −1.11; k = 20). Compared to active controls, effects were small and non-significant post-treatment (g = −0.17; k = 27) but became significant at follow-up (g = −0.40; k = 19), suggesting a potential modest long-term advantage of EDTs. Despite substantial heterogeneity (I2 > 75%), results remained robust in sensitivity analyses. Moderator analyses revealed few significant findings, indicating relative consistency across diagnostic groups, treatment formats and active comparators. Non-Western and lower quality studies reported larger effects compared to inactive, but not active, controls. While cautious interpretation is warranted due to unexplained heterogeneity, findings support EDTs as efficacious transdiagnostic interventions for emotional disorders, with sustained benefits over time. Future research should prioritize large-scale, methodologically rigorous trials that explore mechanisms of change, optimize treatment delivery and identify moderators of long-term outcomes.

Internet-delivered, therapist-guided, self-help programs are novel ways to deliver psychotherapeutic interventions adapted from established therapy models. Such programs can be easily accessed online and may offer an important treatment option for patients who struggle with barriers to seeking out and engaging in face-to-face psychotherapy, including depressed adolescents. While there are evidence-based Internet-delivered self-help programs based on cognitive-behavioral therapies (i.e. ICBT) for adolescent depression, a program based on psychodynamic principles (i.e. IPDT) has so far been lacking. In this article we describe the IPDT program developed within the ERiCA project, which has so far been evaluated in two randomized controlled trials (RCTs). We further provide a case example from one of the trials to illustrate the treatment process and therapeutic interaction in detail. Given the novelty of the approach, we will particularly highlight and discuss how a psychodynamic understanding of adolescent development and depressive dynamics as well as affect-focused treatment principles inform the treatment, including the therapist’s role, tasks, and choice of interventions. The potential implications and utility of IPDT for regular clinical practice are elaborated as well as potential research directions for the future.

Randomized Controlled Trials (RCTs) are currently considered ‘gold standard’ for evaluating psychosocial interventions, including psychodynamic psychotherapies (PDTs). The aim of this review is to summarize all available RCTs involving PDTs. A thorough search yielded 298 studies published between 1967 and 2022. The number of studies has increased over time with 123 (41.2%) published in the last 10 years. Most studies have been conducted in western countries, evaluating PDTs of brief duration (<40 sessions) for adults with mood (k = 67, 22.5%), psychosomatic (k = 38, 12.8%), anxiety (k = 35, 11.7%), or personality disorders (k = 29, 9.7%). The studies have utilized comparative (k = 233, 78.2%), additive (k = 33, 11.1%), parametric (k = 30, 10.1%) and dismantling designs (k = 2, 0.7%) and includes a total of 374 comparisons. Categorization of outcomes suggests that PDTs typically outperforms inactive controls, while comparisons with active treatments, inclugding Cognitive-Behavior Therapy (CBT), typically indicate no statistical difference. While the evidence-base for PDTs is growing, there are still major limitations and many research questions yet to be addressed. There is a pressing need for disseminating the existing research for PDTs to policy makers and the general public, as well as integrating findings in psychodynamic training curriculums.

En ny paraplyöversikt visar att psykodynamisk psykoterapi (PDT) är effektiv behandling vid depression, ångestsyndrom, personlighetssyndrom och funktionella somatiska tillstånd.

Vid sidan av ökad forskning har en betydande metodutveckling skett inom PDT under senaste decennierna.

PDT bör få en utökad plats inom både första linjens psykiatri och specialistpsykiatrin.

The objective of this study was to evaluate the clinical- and cost-effectiveness of Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP) for generalized anxiety disorder (GAD). We further aimed to examine if a key clinical process within the ISTDP framework, termed the level of mobilization of unprocessed complex emotions (MUCE), was related to outcome. The sample consisted of 215 adult patients (60.9% female) with GAD and comorbid conditions treated in a tertiary mental health outpatient setting. The patients were provided an average of 8.3 sessions of ISTDP delivered by 38 therapists. The level of MUCE in treatment was assessed from videotaped sessions by a rater blind to treatment outcome. Year-by-year healthcare costs were derived independently from government databases. Multilevel growth models indicated significant decreases in psychiatric symptoms and interpersonal problems during treatment. These gains were corroborated by reductions in healthcare costs that continued for 4years post-treatment reaching normal population means. Further, we found that the in-treatment level of MUCE was associated with larger treatment effects, underlining the significance of emotional experiencing and processing in the treatment of GAD. We conclude that ISTDP appears to reduce symptoms and costs associated with GAD and that the ISTDP framework may be useful for understanding key therapeutic processes in this challenging clinical population. Controlled studies of ISTDP for GAD are warranted.

This study examined the effects of trial therapy interviews using intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy with 500 mixed sample, tertiary center patients. Furthermore, we investigated whether the effect of trial therapy was larger for patients who had a major unlocking of the unconscious during the interview compared with those who did not. Outcome measures were the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI) and the Inventory of Interpersonal Problems (IIP), measured at baseline and at 1-month follow-up. Significant outcome effects were observed for both the BSI and the IIP with small to moderate preeffect/posteffect sizes, Cohen's d = 0.52 and 0.23, respectively. Treatment effects were greater in patientswho had a major unlocking of the unconscious comparedwith thosewho did not. The trial therapy interview appears to be beneficial, and its effects may relate to certain therapeutic processes. Further controlled research is warranted.

Research has indicated that patients’ in-session experience of previously avoided affects may be important for effective psychotherapy. The aim of this study was to investigate patients’ in-session levels of affect experiencing in relation to their corresponding levels of insight, motivation, and inhibitory affects in initial Experiential Dynamic Therapy (EDT) sessions. Four hundred sixty-six 10-min video segments from 31 initial sessions were rated using the Achievement of Therapeutic Objectives Scale. A series of multilevel growth models, controlling for between-therapist variability, were estimated to predict patients’ adaptive affect experiencing (Activating Affects) across session segments. In line with our expectations, higher within-person levels of Insight and Motivation related to higher levels of Activating Affects per segment. Contrary to expectations, however, lower levels of Inhibition were not associated with higher levels of Activating Affects. Further, using a time-lagged model, we did not find that the levels of Insight, Motivation, or Inhibition during one session segment predicted Activating Affects in the next, possibly indicating that 10-min segments may be suboptimal for testing temporal relationships in affective processes. Our results suggest that, to intensify patients’ immediate affect experiencing in initial EDT sessions, therapists should focus on increasing insight into defensive patterns and, in particular, motivation to give them up. Future research should examine the impact of specific inhibitory affects more closely, as well as between-therapist variability in patients’ in-session adaptive affect experiencing.