Effects of intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy on social cognition in major depression

Background: Social cognition is commonly affected in psychiatric disorders and is a determinant of quality of life. However, there are few studies of treatment. Objective: To investigate the efficacy of intensive short-term dynamic psychotherapy on social cognition in major depression. Method: This study used a parallel group randomized control design to compare pre-test and post-test social cognition scores between depressed participants receiving ISTDP and those allocated to a wait-list control group. Participants were adults (19-40 years of age) who were diagnosed with depression. We recruited 32 individuals, with 16 participants allocated to the ISTDP and control groups, respectively. Both groups were similar in terms of age, sex and educational level. Results: Multivariate analysis of variance (MANOVA) demonstrated that the intervention was effective in terms of the total score of social cognition: the experimental group had a significant increase in the post-test compared to the control group. In addition, the experimental group showed a significant reduction in the negative subjective score compared to the control group as well as an improvement in response to positive neutral and negative states. Conclusion: Depressed patients receiving ISTDP show a significant improvement in social cognition post treatment compared to a wait-list control group.