Efficacy of short-term dynamic psychotherapy : past, present, and future

The author outlines the history of brief dynamic psychotherapy, describes some of its characteristics, and addresses methodological requirements for assessing the efficacy of psychotherapy. Review of two major meta-analyses suggests that manual-based brief dynamic psychotherapy by trained therapists is likely to be as effective as other forms of psychotherapy and more effective than no treatment. More studies are needed that 1) compare brief dynamic psychotherapy with other forms of treatment for specific psychiatric disorders; 2) use theory-specific measures of outcome in addition to measures of symptoms; and 3) compare brief dynamic psychotherapy with long-term psychotherapy.