Large effectiveness: 0.85
What is Intensive Short-term Dynamic Psychotherapy?
1. Developed through empirical, video-recorded research
2. A psychiatrist and psychoanalyst from Montreal video recorded patient sessions and watched the recordings in minute detail to determine as precisely as possible what sorts of interventions were most effective in overcoming resistance, which he believed was acting to keep painful or frightening feelings out of awareness and prevent interpersonal closeness
3. Aims to help the patient experience these warded-off feelings to the maximum degree possible
4. Short-term in that it tries to achieve this experience as quickly as possible
5. Dynamic because it involves working with unconscious forces and transference feelings
Evidence:
0.52 moderate effect: right after therapy effectiveness (Abbass, Town, Ogrodniczuk, Joffres, & Lilliengren, 2017)
0.23 small effect: reduced interpersonal problems (Abbass, Town, Ogrodniczuk, Joffres, & Lilliengren, 2017)
0.75 moderate to large effect: observer rated improvement for treatment resistant depression (Town, Abbass, Stride, & Bernier, 2017)
0.85 large effect: self-reported improvement in depression symptoms for treatment resistant depression (Town, Abbass, Stride, & Bernier, 2017)
0.97 large effect: reduced pain intensity in medically unexplained pain patients right after treatment (Chavooshi, Mohammadkhani & Dolatshahee, 2017)
0.82 large effect: reduced pain intensity in medically unexplained pain patients at 1 year follow-up (Chavooshi, Mohammadkhani & Dolatshahee, 2017)
0.84 large effect: reduced interpersonal problems (Abbass, Town, & Driessen, 2012)
1.51 large effect: reduced depression symptoms (Abbass, Town, & Driessen, 2012)
1.18 large effect: more effective than control conditions (Abbass, Town, & Driessen, 2012)
Abbass, A., Town, J., & Driessen, E. (2012). Intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy: A systematic review and meta-analysis of outcome research. Harvard Review Of Psychiatry, 20(2), 97-108. doi:10.3109/10673229.2012.677347
Abbass, A., Town, J., Ogrodniczuk, J., Joffres, M., & Lilliengren, P. (2017). Intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy trial therapy: Effectiveness and role of ‘unlocking the unconscious’. Journal Of Nervous And Mental Disease, 205(6), 453-457. doi:10.1097/NMD.0000000000000684
Chavooshi, B., Mohammadkhani, P., & Dolatshahee, B. (2017). Telemedicine vs. in-person delivery of intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy for patients with medically unexplained pain: A 12-month randomized, controlled trial. Journal Of Telemedicine And Telecare, 23(1), 133-141. doi:10.1177/1357633X15627382
Town, J. M., Abbass, A., Stride, C., & Bernier, D. (2017). A randomised controlled trial of Intensive Short-Term Dynamic Psychotherapy for treatment resistant depression: The Halifax Depression Study. Journal Of Affective Disorders, 21415-25. doi:10.1016/j.jad.2017.02.035
How To Therapy 