Final Annotated bibliography

Løvgren, A., Røssberg, J. I., Nilsen, L., Engebretsen, E., & Ulberg, R. (2019). How do adolescents with depression experience improvement in psychodynamic psychotherapy? A qualitative study. BMC Psychiatry, 19(1), 95. doi:10.1186/s12888-019-2080-0

Summary

The authors performed the qualitative study to explore the factors that makes adolescents with depression improve after experiencing psychodynamic therapy (PDT). Eight female patients attended 28 sessions of psychodynamic therapy then participated in semi-structured qualitative interviews to narrate their therapy experiences. The authors found out that the adolescents’ depression improved because they explore themselves during psychodynamic therapy sessions. Therapists using psychodynamic therapy are also supportive, confident, experienced, listening, and trustworthy. Improvement is also experienced since the adolescents can relate well with others and find their place in the family and in the school environment. The article concluded that therapists should consider the adolescents’ needs and life challenges and incorporate them into therapy.

Analysis

The article supports its arguments and conclusions with evidence from a qualitative study conducted by the authors. Specifically, the authors present the data collected among eight female adolescents with major depressive disorder (MDD) through semi-structured interviews. Particularly, the themes that enable psychodynamic therapy (PDT) to improve depression are time factors, exploring oneself, concentrating on daily life, as well as therapist relation and characteristics. Apart from presenting evidence of a study that actually occurred, the authors use credible and reliable sources of information. For instance, the article supports its arguments using recent peer reviewed psychology and social work journal articles written by credible authors. The authors of the cited articles are certified and experienced therapists and social workers. Besides, the evidence supporting the arguments is persuasive considering it is from an actual study and reliable sources of information. Furthermore, the authors mentioned the limitations of the study including its lack of generalizability, as it is a qualitative study. Nonetheless, the experiment involved female teenagers only hence it is difficult to determine if the results are true even among boys struggling with depression.

Application

The results of the article are important to therapists, social workers, and other human services professionals who address problems affecting adolescents. The article discusses the characteristics of PDT that makes it effective in the treatment of depression among teenagers. Therefore, mental health professionals should consider all the themes revealed in the qualitative study and integrate them into psychodynamic therapy to enhance patient outcomes. PDT should be tailored to meet the needs of depressed teenagers. For example, therapists or social workers should be confident, experienced, and trustworthy to enable depressed teenagers to share their life issues. Therapists offering psychodynamic therapy could use the article findings to help adolescents to solve family and school challenges.