Insights into brief psychodynamic psychotherapy in the treatment of major depressive disorder

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Gianluca Rosso

University of Turin, Torino, Italy

: Int J Ment Health Psychiatry

Abstract

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Brief psychodynamic psychotherapy (or brief dynamic therapy – BDT) is a time-limited, focused, psychodynamic intervention that derives its principles from psychoanalytic theory. The efficacy of this technique in the treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD) is still a matter of debate, but an increasing number of studies considering BDT both in monotherapy and in addition to medications have been published in recent years. Some findings suggest that BDT is more effective than non-specific supportive psychotherapy and has significant advantages when combined with antidepressants compared to pharmacotherapy alone. In particular, a long-term advantage of BDT in the prevention of relapses/recurrences of MDD has been shown. This could depend on the fact that the primary objective of BDT, which is is to enhance the patient’s insight into repetitive intrapsychic and interpersonal conflicts, is a specific therapeutic factor that keep working even after the end of psychotherapy sessions. Results of the main studies on BDT in MDD, including those considering patients with other psychiatric conditions and concurrent major depression, will be shown and discussed in order to analyze what are the conditions in which this technique can be used most successfully in daily clinical practice.

Biography

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Gianluca Rosso, MD, Ph.D, Psychiatrist, is Associate Professor of Psychiatry at Department of Neurosciences, University of Torino. He’s working at Psychiatric Unit of San Luigi Gonzaga University Hospital. He has published over 80 scientific contributions on peer reviewed journals and he attended more than 70 national and international meetings as invited speaker. His research interests have focused on clinical psychiatry and psychopharmacology, short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy and translational psychiatry. He has been co-investigator in internationally funded research studies and he is principal investigator in ongoing multicentric and indipendent clinical studies. He currently teaches in many degree courses including Psychiatry at Medicine and Surgery, University of Torino.