ArticleWorld psychiatry : official journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA)2015
The effectiveness of psychodynamic psychotherapies: An update.
Article in World psychiatry : official journal of the World Psychiatric Association (WPA), 2015. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 55 papers, 10 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
55 citing papers in PubMed, 10 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Effectiveness of psychosocial interventions for adults with substance use disorder that have a co-occurring mental health disorder: an umbrella review and illustrative cost-effectiveness analysis.Health technology assessment (Winchester, England) · 2026Pooled it
- Dissociation and recovery in psychosis - an overview of the literature.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2024Pooled it
- Which patients benefit from adding short-term psychodynamic psychotherapy to antidepressants in the treatment of depression? A systematic review and meta-analysis of individual participant data.Psychological medicine · 2023Pooled it
- Effectiveness of outpatient and community treatments for people with a diagnosis of 'personality disorder': systematic review and meta-analysis.BMC psychiatry · 2023Pooled it
- Using Artificial Intelligence to Enhance Ongoing Psychological Interventions for Emotional Problems in Real- or Close to Real-Time: A Systematic Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2022Pooled it
- Neural correlates of psychodynamic and non-psychodynamic therapies in different clinical populations through fMRI: A meta-analysis and systematic review.Frontiers in human neuroscience · 2022Pooled it
- The Evidence-Base for Psychodynamic Psychotherapy With Children and Adolescents: A Narrative Synthesis.Frontiers in psychology · 2021Pooled it
- Psychodynamic Based Equine-Assisted Psychotherapy in Adults with Intertwined Personality Problems and Traumatization: A Systematic Review.International journal of environmental research and public health · 2020Pooled it
- Treatment-Resistant to Antipsychotics: A Resistance to Everything? Psychotherapy in Treatment-Resistant Schizophrenia and Nonaffective Psychosis: A 25-Year Systematic Review and Exploratory Meta-Analysis.Frontiers in psychiatry · 2019Pooled it
- The effectiveness of art therapy for anxiety in adults: A systematic review of randomised and non-randomised controlled trials.PloS one · 2018Pooled it
- Trial
- Treatment effects and adherence of sexually compulsive men in a randomized controlled trial of psychotherapy and medication.Journal of behavioral addictions · 2023Trial
- Outcome of Psychoanalytic and Cognitive-Behavioural Long-Term Therapy with Chronically Depressed Patients: A Controlled Trial with Preferential and Randomized Allocation.Canadian journal of psychiatry. Revue canadienne de psychiatrie · 2019Trial
- Trial
- A survey of perceived attitudes toward psychotherapy among Thai psychiatrists.BMC psychiatry · 2026Article
- Pre-post differences in outcomes associated with participation in theFrontiers in psychiatry · 2026Article
- Psychotherapeutic Treatment of Attachment Trauma in Musicians with Severe Music Performance Anxiety.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Article
- Potential for Harm in the Treatment of Pediatric Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder: Pitfalls and Best Practices.Research on child and adolescent psychopathology · 2025Review
- The role of identity in the development of depressive, anxiety and psychosis symptoms in adolescents exposed to childhood adversity: a process-oriented approach.BMC psychiatry · 2025Article
- Revitalizing Psychodynamics in Psychiatric Training: An Intergenerational Perspective.Academic psychiatry : the journal of the American Association of Directors of Psychiatric Residency Training and the Association for Academic Psychiatry · 2024Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
Abstract
This paper provides a comprehensive review of outcome studies and meta-analyses of effectiveness studies of psychodynamic therapy (PDT) for the major categories of mental disorders. Comparisons with inactive controls (waitlist, treatment as usual and placebo) generally but by no means invariably show PDT to be effective for depression, some anxiety disorders, eating disorders and somatic disorders. There is little evidence to support its implementation for post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, bulimia nervosa, cocaine dependence or psychosis. The strongest current evidence base supports relatively long-term psychodynamic treatment of some personality disorders, particularly borderline personality disorder. Comparisons with active treatments rarely identify PDT as superior to control interventions and studies are generally not appropriately designed to provide tests of statistical equivalence. Studies that demonstrate inferiority of PDT to alternatives exist, but are small in number and often questionable in design. Reviews of the field appear to be subject to allegiance effects. The present review recommends abandoning the inherently conservative strategy of comparing heterogeneous "families" of therapies for heterogeneous diagnostic groups. Instead, it advocates using the opportunities provided by bioscience and computational psychiatry to creatively explore and assess the value of protocol-directed combinations of specific treatment components to address the key problems of individual patients.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.