Psychodynamic psychotherapy with adolescents and young adults: Outcome in routine practice

Abstract

This naturalistic study examined the outcome of psychodynamic psychotherapy with 218 adolescents and young adults aged 14-24 years. Analysis of variance showed significant improvement of general functioning on Children's Global Assessment Scale (CGAS) and Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) and decreased symptom severity on Symptoms Checklist-90 (SCL-90) upon completion of psychotherapy, as well as a clinically significant improvement in a large percentage of cases. Effect sizes were equivalent to those evident in a clinical comparison group and larger than in prior research. The main limitation of this study was the lack of a control group, partially compensated for through the use of comparison groups and high external validity. The study seeks to fill a gap in an important yet overlooked field of research.