COMPARATIVE EFFECTS OF COGNITIVE-BEHAVIORAL AND BRIEF PSYCHODYNAMIC PSYCHOTHERAPIES FOR DEPRESSED FAMILY CAREGIVERS

Clinically depressed family caregivers (N = 66) of frail. elderly rela tives were randomly assigned to 20 sessions of either cognitive-behavi oral (CB) or brief psychodynamic (PD) individual psychotherapy. At pos ttreatment, 71% of the caregivers were no longer clinically depressed according to research diagnostic criteria (RDC), with no differences f ound between the 2 outpatient treatments. The results suggested therap y specificity: there was an interaction between treatment modality and length of caregiving on symptom-oriented measures. Clients who had be en caregivers for a shorter period showed improvement in the PD condit ion, whereas those who had been caregivers for at least 44 months impr oved with CB therapy. These findings suggest that patient-specific var iables should be considered when choosing treatment for clinically dep ressed family caregivers.