Comparative effects of cognitive-behavioral and brief psychodynamic psychotherapies for depressed family caregivers.

Clinically depressed family caregivers (N?=?66) of frail, elderly relatives were randomly assigned to 20 sessions of either cognitive-behavioral (CB) or brief psychodynamic (PD) individual psychotherapy. At posttreatment, 71% of the caregivers were no longer clinically depressed according to Research Diagnostic Criteria (RDC), with no differences found between the 2 outpatient treatments. The results suggested therapy specificity; there was an interaction between treatment modality and length of caregiving on symptom-oriented measures. Clients who had been caregivers for a shorter period showed improvement in the PD condition, whereas those who had been caregivers for at least 44 mo improved with CB therapy. These findings suggest that patient-specific variables should be considered when choosing treatment for clinically depressed family caregivers. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)