Abstract

COSTA, Camila Piva da; BASTOS, Andre Goettems; PADOAN, Carolina Stopinski  and  EIZIRIK, Cláudio Laks. Clinical studies in psychodynamic psychotherapy: a systematic review of follow-ups interventions. Contextos Clínic [online]. 2017, vol.10, n.1, pp. 48-59. ISSN 1983-3482.  http://dx.doi.org/10.4013/ctc.2017.101.04.

The effectiveness of a treatment is usually measured by the clinical improvement of the patient. However, an important factor to consider is the maintenance of the results after the end of the treatment. For this, the follow-up is a relevant tool. The objective of this study was to systematically review and analyze follow-up studies with clinical interventions in psychodynamic psychotherapy from 2006 to 2016. The searches were made in the main databases with the following descriptors: psychodynamic psychotherapy, outcome, follow-up and equivalents. Twenty-seven articles met the inclusion criteria. Studies indicate that psychotherapies are effective treatments not only during the process and results tend to remain after patient discharge. Conclusions indicate that follow-up measures should be considered to assess the long-term effectiveness of a treatment. In studies comparing models of psychotherapy effectiveness, it was seen that in most cases there were no significant differences between treatment groups, that is, patients presented improvement independently of the type of psychotherapy. However, long-term treatment models tend to have higher maintenance rates of improvement in the post-discharge period. The maintenance of long-term treatment results seems to be a relevant clinical indication to be considered when indicating treatment.

Keywords : follow-up; psychodynamic psychotherapy; effectiveness.

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