Research
of psychoanalytic psychotherapy
“Child and adolescent psychotherapy is recognised by the Government as a core profession within Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS), as set out in Standard 9 of the National Service Framework (NSF) for Children, Young People and Maternity Services (September 2004)” – from childpsychotherapy.org
Contemporary studies have highlighted the way in which specifically psychoanalytic help not only relieves symptoms like anxiety or depression for adults and children, but also continues to have a positive effect long after treatment itself has ended. This is in distinction to other, briefer forms of treatment. Recent research[4] suggests that adults who have received psychoanalytic psychotherapy continue improve across a range of domains, once their regular sessions have ended. This finding has also been shown in the treatment of children and adolescents[5] – children diagnosed with depression and treated with child psychotherapy saw:
- statistically significant reductions in symptoms following treatment with child and adolescent psychotherapy
- ongoing improvement at a six-month follow-up[6]
A number of books are available that have collected the most significant studies into the efficacy of child psychotherapy. The most recent of these, Child Psychotherapy and Research: New Approaches, Emerging Findings (2009), details the many ways in which child psychotherapists use their training to help children with a wide range of presenting difficulties.
[1] For example, Mentalization Based Therapy (MBT) Dynamic Interpersonal Therapy (DIT)
[2] NICE (2017). Depression in children and young people: identification and management, Clinical guideline [CG28] https://www.nice.org.uk/guidance/CG28
[3] See: Abbas A. et al. (2013) Psychodynamic Psychotherapy for Children and Adolescents: a Meta-Analysis of Short-Term Psychodynamic Models, Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. 2013 Aug;52(8):863-75 , and: Barlow J. et al. (2016) Parent- Infant Psychotherapy: a Systematic Review of the Evidence for Improving Parental and Infant Mental Health, Journal of Reproductive and Infant Psychology, 34, 5, 464-482
[4] Shedler, J. (2010). The efficacy of psychodynamic psychotherapy. American Psychologist, 65(2), 98-109.
[5] Trowell, J., Joffe, I., Campbell, J. et al. (2007) Childhood Depression: A Place for Psychotherapy, European Child Adolescent Psychiatry (2007) 16: 157. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-006-0584-x
[6] https://childpsychotherapy.org.uk/members/evidence-research