Planned Short-Term Psychotherapy for Depression: Recent Controlled Outcome Studies

The largest number of diagnosis-specific controlled outcome studies of planned shortterm psychotherapy deal with depression. Brief psychotherapy appears to be consistently helpful, particularly for mild to moderate levels of depression. The most common brief psychotherapeutic approaches used in the treatment of depression—cognitivebehavioral and interpersonally oriented psychodynamic—appear to be equally effective in relieving its symptoms. The frequent severity and chronicity of these conditions suggests, however, that several brief episodes of care may be necessary to achieve optimal effect. [Brief Treatment and Crisis Intervention 1:169–189 (2001)]