Effectiveness Trial of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy for Children and Adolescents with Severe Anxiety Symptoms in a Naturalistic Treatment Setting

Effectiveness of psychodynamic treatment: Comparing trajectories of internalizing and externalizing psychopathology of adolescents in treatment, healthy and physically ill adolescents

Effectiveness of psychodynamic therapy for adolescents in reducing internalizing and externalizing psychopathology was determined by comparing treated adolescents (86 sessions) with the normative developmental progression in two groups without treatment: healthy and diabetic adolescents. In a three-wave longitudinal study, n = 531 adolescents (n = 303 patients, n = 119 healthy, n = 109 diabetics) and their mothers filled out psychopathology questionnaires (Youth Self-Report and Child Behavior Checklist). Latent growth curve modeling and multilevel modeling were used to analyze and compare within-person symptoms changes across groups. Analyses showed a significant reduction over the course of treatment for internalizing (Cohen's d = .90-.92) and externalizing (d = .58-.72) symptoms, also when the developmental progression of both control groups was accounted for (d = .48-.76). Mothers reported lower levels than their children in internalizing symptoms (p ≤ .01) while this discrepancy increased over time for treated adolescents (p = .02). Results established the effectiveness of psychodynamic treatment for adolescents both with externalizing and internalizing symptoms in comparison with growth and change in nonclinical samples. Cross-informant differences and age-specific trajectories require attention in psychotherapy treatment and research.

The Evidence-Base for Psychodynamic Psychotherapy With Children and Adolescents: A Narrative Synthesis

Despite a rich theoretical and clinical history, psychodynamic child and adolescent psychotherapy has been slow to engage in the empirical assessment of its effectiveness. This systematic review aims to provide a narrative synthesis of the evidence base for psychodynamic therapy with children and adolescents. Building on two earlier systematic reviews, which covered the period up to 2017, the current study involved two stages: an updated literature search, covering the period between January 2017 and May 2020, and a narrative synthesis of these new studies with those identified in the earlier reviews. The updated search identified 37 papers (28 distinct studies). When combined with papers identified in the earlier systematic reviews, this resulted in a combined total of 123 papers (82 distinct studies). The narrative synthesis of findings indicates that there is evidence of effectiveness for psychodynamic therapy in treating a wide range of mental health difficulties in children and adolescents. The evidence suggests this approach may be especially effective for internalizing disorders such as depression and anxiety, as well as in the treatment of emerging personality disorders and in the treatment of children who have experience of adversity. Both the quality and quantity of empirical papers in this field has increased over time. However, much of the research demonstrates a range of methodological limitations (small sample sizes, lack of control groups etc.), and only 22 studies were Randomized Controlled Trials. Further high-quality research is needed in order to better understand the effectiveness of psychodynamic psychotherapy for children and young people.

Systematic Review and Meta-analysis: Outcomes of Routine Specialist Mental Health Care for Young People With Depression and/or Anxiety

OBJECTIVE

Depression and anxiety are the most prevalent mental health problems in youth, yet almost nothing is known about what outcomes are to be expected at the individual level following routine treatment. This paper sets out to address this gap by undertaking a systematic review of outcomes following treatment as usual (TAU) with a particular focus on individual-level outcomes.

METHOD

MEDLINE, Embase and PsycInfo were searched for articles published between 1980 and January 2019 that assessed TAU outcomes for youth depression and anxiety accessing specialist mental health care. Meta-analysis considered change at both group-level pre-post effect size (ES) and individual-level recovery, reliable change, and reliable recovery. Temporal analysis considered stability of primary and secondary outcomes over time. Subgroup analysis considered the moderating effect of informant; presenting problem; study design; study year; mean age of youth; use of medication; intervention dosage and type of treatment offered on outcomes. A protocol was preregistered on PROSPERO (CRD42017063914).

RESULTS

Initial screening of 6,350 publications resulted in 38 that met the inclusion criteria, and that were subsequently included in meta-analyses. This resulted in a final full pooled sample of 11,739 young people (61% of whom were female, mean age 13.8 years). The pre-post ES (Hedges' g) at first/final outcome (13/26 weeks) was -0.74/-0.87. The individual-level change on measures of self-report was 38% reliable improvement, 44% no reliable change, and 6% reliable deterioration. Outcomes varied according to moderators, informant, problem type and dosage.

CONCLUSION

Poor data quantity and quality are limitations, but this is the first study that indicates likely rates of reliable improvement for those accessing TAU. We propose the need for improved reporting of both individual-level metrics and details of TAU to enable greater understanding of likely current outcomes from routine care for youths with depression and anxiety in order to allow the potential for further improvement of impact.

[Effectiveness of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy for Children and Adolescents with Severe Anxiety Psychopathology in a Naturalistic Treatment Setting]

Effectiveness of Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy for Children and Adolescents with Severe Anxiety Psychopathology in a Naturalistic Treatment Setting The aim of the study was to evaluate naturalistic out-patient psychoanalytic youth psychotherapy in Germany. The study was a partly controlled effectiveness trial. While the first treatment interval (25 sessions, 6.13 months) was compared with a wait-list control group (5 supportive sessions, 2.94 months), the effects of long-term psychoanalytical treatment were analyzed using a time-series design. 86 children and adolescents (aged 4 to 21 years) and their parents who entered psychoanalytic therapy in private practices participated in this study. The wait-list control group comprised 35 patients. Questionnaires were administered at the beginning and the end of treatment, as well as 6 and 12 month follow-up (FU). Patients received on average 94.04 therapy sessions (range 8 to 300) over 25.70 months. Data analyses were carried out with multilevel mixed linear models on the intention-to-treat (ITT) sample. The patients in the intervention group reported moderate symptom improvements at the end of therapy (d = .57), these effects are stable at the 1-year follow-up and increase from the patient perspective (d = .80). When comparing the first therapy interval with the (minimal treatment) wait-list control group, both groups improved significantly with small effect sizes and no significant group differences. The results suggest that long-term psychoanalytic therapy is successful in alleviating anxiety pathology and improving quality of life for youth with anxiety disorders, and that improvements remain stable across a 1-year follow-up period.