Effects of treatment duration and severity of depression on the maintenance of gains following cognitive-behavioural and psychodynamic-interpersonal psychotherapy

104 clients completed a mailed follow-up 1 year after completing 8 or 16 sessions of treatment. Either cognitive-behavioral (CB) or psychodynamic-interpersonal (Pl) psychotherapy. Although mean scores on outcome measures at 1 year suggested that gains were, in general, well maintained, only 29% of clients were asymptomatic on all 3 occasions of testing without recourse to further treatment. However, only 11% of those asymptomatic at end of treatment experienced relapse or recurrence of depression, albeit on the limited evidence of just two follow-up assessments. The results of comparisons among treatment conditions at 1 year differed substantially from those obtained earlier. These findings confirm the importance of follow-up in evaluation of psychotherapies for depression.