Psychoanalytic Therapies vs. Other Types of Therapy

JUST-PUBLISHED AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGIST STUDY ON THERAPY WITH ADOLESCENTS MISLEADINGLY CLAIMS THAT CBT IS THE MOST EFFECTIVE TREATMENT MODALITY A recent meta-analysis (Weisz, et al., 2017) in the APA’s publication, American Psychologist, exemplifies the kind of bias that has been shown by the American psychology community in favor of CBT and against psychodynamic treatments. This meta-analysis broke the groups into behavioral …

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“No research findings ever suggested that manualized CBT was more effective than psychodynamic therapy. It was just more often studied in research settings. There is a world of difference between saying that a treatment has not been extensively researched and saying it has been empirically invalidated. But academic researchers routinely blurred this distinction.”

Looking at 70 studies conducted between 1977 and 2014 on the effectiveness of CBT on depression, this meta-analysis shows a dramatically waning impact. The authors suggest that this may be due to the diminishment of a placebo effect of CBT, an effect that was stronger when, almost 40 years ago, the treatment was relatively new.

ARTICLE IN THE GUARDIAN ABOUT THE ADVANTAGES OF PSYCHOANALYTIC THERAPIES OVER CBT Very thoughtful and thorough article in the Guardian looking at the resurgence of psychoanalysis in light of increasing concerns about the effectiveness of CBT. “Depending on how you interpret the evidence, it would seem we can do countless complex things – from performing mental arithmetic, to hitting a …

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2016 study published in the American Journal of Psychology by Mikhail Rabinovich analyzes multiple studies of psychoanalytic treatment of anxiety utilizing elaborate statistical analyses reveals that the analytic treatment of anxiety incorporates a number of empirically supported techniques for amelioration of anxiety, such as desensitization and gradual exposure. Rabinovich writes, “It is shown that despite the antiresearch image of psychoanalytic …

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“[M]any psychodynamic proponents argue that evidence-based assessments might lead researchers to dismiss potentially useful therapies that simply haven’t been studied enough. ‘Absence of evidence does not equal evidence of absence’ said Michael Thase, a psychiatrist and professor at the University of Pennsylvania.” from A Tale of Two Therapies

“Claims that ‘evidence-based’ therapy is more effective than real-world therapy lack scientific basis. Academic researchers have been selling a myth—one that enhances the careers and reputations of academic researchers, but not necessarily the well-being of patients.”

A meta-analytic study concluding that “[t]here were no differences between CBT treatments and bona fide non-CBT treatments across disorder-specific and non-disorder specific symptom measures. These analyses, in combination with previous meta-analytic findings, fail to provide corroborative evidence for the conjecture that CBT is superior to bona fide non-CBT treatments.”

2007 study by Clarkin, Levy, Lenzenweger & Kernberg comparing DBT, a structured transference-focused (i.e., psychodynamic) therapy and supportive therapy in the treatment of 90 patients diagnosed with Borderline Personality Disorder. The researchers found that, while all three types of treatment were helpful, the transference-focused therapy was effective in the most domains that were measured (suicidality, irritability, anger, impulsivity, verbal assaultiveness …

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