Trials show that psychotherapy is effective for wide range of psychological conditions

EDITOR—In his article on randomised controlled trials in psychiatry Andrews concludes that dynamic psychotherapy is not efficacious and that drugs and cognitive behaviour therapy are more beneficial.1 In fact, results from randomised controlled trials show that psychotherapy is an effective treatment for a wide range of psychological conditions.2 Furthermore, the results of a recent randomised controlled trial of brief psychodynamic-interpersonal therapy shows that this may be a cost effective intervention for patients who have not responded to conventional psychiatric treatment.3 In previous research this therapy was shown to be superior to supportive listening alone,4 in contrast to Andrews' claim that no trial has “been shown to be superior to talking to a mature and kindly adviser.”

In …