Information, news and debate about psychoanalytic and psychodynamic psychotherapies
Tavistock Adult Depression Study - Susan McPherson, Lucy Chan, Phil Richardson, David Taylor and David Shapiro
The Tavistock Clinic is carrying out the first randomised controlled trial of psychoanalytic psychotherapy in the treatment of refractory depression. Patients who are eligible for the study are those with significant depression who have not responded successfully to previous drug treatment - with or without additional psychological interventions.
www.tavistockandportman.nhs.uk/adultdepressionstudy
Psychotherapy Evaluation Research Unit (PERU)
www.tavistockandportman.nhs.uk/psychotherapyevaluationresearchunit
Mentalization-based treatment for borderline personality disorder
www.ucl.ac.uk/psychoanalysis/research/mbt.htm
UCL Psychoanalysis Unit research
www.ucl.ac.uk/psychoanalysis/research/research.htm
The Anna Freud Centre's approach to evidence based practice
The child psychoanalytic tradition, and the perspective on developmental psychopathology, founded and elaborated by Anna Freud and her colleagues at the Centre, continues fundamentally to shape the AFC's work. In the 25 years since Anna Freud's death, the AFC and many others have worked hard to keep that tradition and perspective growing, relevant to the contemporary child mental health world, and responsive to new knowledge and methods in the worlds of clinical practice and developmental research (e.g.: Fonagy, P., Target, M. (2002). The History and Current Status of Outcome Research at the Anna Freud Centre).
www.annafreudcentre.org/afc_ebp.htm
Comprehensive database and links to research summaries from the International Psychoanalytical Association:
www.ipa.org.uk/eng/research/research/
Abstract of paper in the American Psychologist, Feb-Mar 2010: Empirical evidence supports the efficacy of psychodynamic therapy. Effect sizes for psychodynamic therapy are as large as those reported for other therapies that have been actively promoted as “empirically supported” and “evidence based.” In addition, patients who receive psychodynamic therapy maintain therapeutic gains and appear to continue to improve after treatment ends. Finally, nonpsychodynamic therapies may be effective in part because the more skilled practitioners utilize techniques that have long been central to psychodynamic theory and practice. The perception that psychodynamic approaches lack empirical support does not accord with available scientific evidence and may reflect selective dissemination of research findings.
Download the original paper from the APsaA website here
American Psychoanalytic Association research:
> Empirical Studies of Psychoanalytic Treatments, Process, and Concepts
> Frequently Asked Questions
What Happens in a Psychoanalysis? A View through the Lens of The Analytic Process Scales (APS)
© 2003, Sherwood Waldron, Robert Scharf, David Hurst , Stephen Firestein & Anna Burton
Published in 2004, International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 85: 443-466
'Efficacy of psychoanalysis and intensive psychoanalytic therapy
for patients with substantial phobias, anxieties and panic states: a comment with new findings from the Menninger study'
Sherwood Waldron