EFFECTS OF TREATMENT DURATION AND SEVERITY OF DEPRESSION ON THE MAINTENANCE OF GAINS AFTER COGNITIVE-BEHAVIORAL AND PSYCHODYNAMIC-INTERPERSONAL PSYCHOTHERAPY

One hundred four clients completed a mailed follow-up 1 year after com pleting 8 or 16 sessions of treatment, either cognitive-behavioral (CB ) or psychodynamic-interpersonal (PI) psychotherapy. Although mean sco res on outcome measures at 1 year suggested that gains were, in genera l, well maintained, only 29% of clients were asymptomatic on all 3 occ asions of testing (end of treatment, 3 months and 1 year later) withou t recourse to further treatment. However, only 11% of those asymptomat ic at end of treatment experienced relapse or recurrence of depression , albeit on the limited evidence of just two follow-up assessments. Th e results of comparisons among treatment conditions at 1 year differed substantially from those obtained earlier: Eight-session PI treatment now appeared less efficacious than the other 3 treatment conditions, and there was now no measurable benefit of 16-session over 8-session C B, irrespective of initial severity of depression. These findings conf irm the importance of follow-up in evaluation of psychotherapies for d epression.