Text Box: How Effective is Psychoanalysis? Text Box: Psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy have been shown to be effective forms of treatment for a wide range of difficulties. Studies have concluded that people who have had psychoanalytic psychotherapy or psychoanalysis maintain the changes they have achieved through the therapy over time. This is thought to be, in part, because they have developed capacities to understand themselves better and to analyze new difficulties that arise. Benefits include improvement in relationships, work, and self-esteem. Evidence for effectiveness is considerable. In 2008 the American Medical Association published a review of a large number of studies. This review concluded that long-term psychodynamic psychotherapy engendered more long lasting personality change in persons with complex disorders than short-term, non-psychodynamic therapies. In 2009, another review of a large number of psychotherapy studies conducted from 1970 to 2007 was published in the Harvard Review of Psychiatry. This review concluded that empirical evidence showed that long-term psychoanalytic psychotherapy and psychoanalysis produced significant improvement in symptoms and personality. Moreover, the effects of this long-term treatment were maintained in post-treatment years. Additionally, neuroscientists studying the brain have underscored the significance of unconscious thought and the beneficial impact of the therapeutic relationship on brain function.*** The following links contain information and empirical research supporting the efficacy of psychoanalytic psychotherapy and psychoanalysis: http://www.apsa.org/Research/Empirical_Studies_in_Psychoanalysis.aspx http://www.ipa.org.uk/default.aspx?page=34 Leichsenring, F., & Rabung, S. (2008). Effectiveness of long-term psychodynamic psychotherapy: A meta-analysis. Journal of the American Medical Association, 300, 1551-1555. deMaat,S., deJonghe, F., Schoevers, R., & Dekker, J. (2009). The effectiveness of long-term psychoanalytic therapy: A systematic review of empirical studies. Harvard Review of Psychiatry, 17, 1-23. Schore, A. (2003). Affect Regulation and the Repair of the Self. New York: Norton.   Solms, M., & Turnbull, O.(2002). The Brain and the Inner World. New York: Other Press. Schedler, J. (in press). The efficacy of psychodynamic psychotherapy. American Psychologist.

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      Arizona Center for Psychoanalytic Studies