ABSTRACT
As Allan Abbass, psychiatrist, makes clear in his review of brief psychodynamic psychotherapy (Harvard Review of Psychiatry, 2012), the evidence base for brief psychodynamic psychotherapy as an effective treatment tool is well-established. There are now over 25 published outcome studies in the fi eld which include randomised controlled trials. Abbass further draws our attention to the effectiveness of this therapy with respect to a wide range of disorders. These include personality disorder, panic disorder, resistant and complex depression and physiologically unexplained symptoms. A subsequent metaanalysis of short-term (40 or fewer sessions) psychodynamic psychotherapy with children and young people with a range of common mental disorders, Abbass et al. (2013) suggested a tendency towards increased gains over time following the end of treatment.
