Use of antidepressant medication is associated with slower response to open-ended psychotherapy for depressed patients.

ABSTRACT:

Objective

Depressed patients often experience both symptomatic distress and interpersonal problems. Comorbid personality disorder (PD) has been shown to attenuate the benefits of psychotherapy. Also, antidepressant medication (ADM) may affect the response to psychotherapy. The objective of this study was to investigate changes in depressive symptoms and interpersonal problems for ADM users and non-medicated depressed patients during psychotherapy and follow-up, controlling for comorbid PD.

Method

Depressive symptoms (SCL-90-R), and interpersonal problems (IIP-64) were assessed on 11 occasions for 166 depressed patients. ADM was used by 50.6% of the sample while 49.4% were unmedicated. Change during treatment and follow-up was assessed with multilevel modeling. We assessed wh

SUBMITTER: Hostmælingen A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12433994 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature