Evidence for Psychodynamic Approaches

This article in The Guardian's 'Long Read' section provides an accessible overview of the recent findings supporting the case for long term benefits arising from psychoanalysis, and the adverse findings for the efficacy of CBT. Key extracts excerpted below:

"...researchers at London’s Tavistock clinic published results in October from the first rigorous NHS study of long-term psychoanalysis as a treatment for chronic depression. For the most severely depressed, it concluded, 18 months of analysis worked far better – and with much longer-lasting effects – than “treatment as usual” on the NHS, which included some CBT. Two years after the various treatments ended, 44% of analysis patients no longer met the criteria for major depression, compared to one-tenth of the others. Around the same time, the Swedish press reported a finding from government auditors there: that a multimillion pound scheme to reorient mental healthcare towards CBT had proved completely ineffective in meeting its goals."