G. Barzega, S. Venturello, F. Bogetto - Vol. 5, Giugno 1999, num.2
Testo Immagini Bibliografia Summary Riassunto Indice
Psicoterapia della depressione:
prove sperimentali di efficacia e valutazione critica dei risultati
Psychotherapy of depression: a critical
review of the experimental evidences of its efficacy
Psychotherapy, both alone and in combination with pharmacotherapy, is one of the possible treatments suggested for depressive disorders.
At the moment, research data are sparse, but there is ample evidence that several psychotherapies are effective in the acute and maintenance treatment of depression. Nowdays data on whether the use of a combination of psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy is advantageous are still inconclusive.
Methodological problems such as inadequate sample size and lack of a pill-placebo control are common and are reviewed and discussed. The majority of the psychotherapy outcome studies in depression focus on interpersonal and cognitive-behavioural therapies and relatively few examine brief dynamic psychotherapy. Unfortunately, at the moment, we do not know whether individuals who respond to one approach will also respond to other interventions. Studies aimed at identifying specific predictors are few and until now no consistent findings have been produced. This is a crucial question for future research, as knowledge about which patients respond to which treatment in which particular setting will allow interventions to be targeted more systematically. These issues are reviewed and discussed.