The Effectiveness of Brief Versus Intermediate Duration Psychodynamic Psychotherapy in the Treatment of Adjustment Disorder

Abstract

Treatment studies and particularly psychotherapeutic treatment studies of patients suffering from an adjustment disorder are very scarce, leading to insufficient evidence regarding the efficacy of treatment in this population. Whereas timely psychotherapy is known to be of benefit in the treatment of adjustment disorders, the ideal duration of psychotherapeutic interventions is not known. This study examined whether a brief 12-session focused psychodynamic psychotherapy may be as efficient as a longer intermediate-term (1 year) psychodynamic psychotherapy in treating patients suffering from an adjustment disorder. Subjects (n = 66) were randomly assigned to either brief or intermediate psychotherapy. They were assessed by self-report measures and clinician’s evaluation at baseline, end of therapy, and 9 months after therapy was terminated. The results showed a good overall improvement in the whole group. Furthermore, brief psychotherapy was found to be as good as intermediate psychotherapy both at the end of treatment and at follow-up. Although our study was not designed to confirm the efficacy of dynamic psychotherapy in the treatment of adjustment disorders, our results suggest that brief interventions may be good enough in adjustment disorder, thus allowing treatment of a greater number of patients without compromising for the quality and suitability of treatment.