Psychotherapy and antidepressant medication: Scope, procedure and interaction: A survey of psychotherapists’ experience
In two opinion surveys, a total of 130 psychotherapists and psychotherapy students were asked to respond to questions about different aspects of treatment with psychotherapy combined with antidepressant medication. Their answers show that, at psychotherapy units belonging to regional psychiatry, an average of half the patients and at non-regional psychotherapy units nearly a quarter of the patient group were prescribed antidepressant medication.
Usually medication is initiated before psychotherapy and more patients terminated than started medication during psychotherapy. The psychotherapists’ experience of combined treatment was either positive, negative or mixed, the latter depending on which patients and which psychic problems were being treated. The reported specific effects on the psychotherapeutic work are presented as well as various aspects of how the medication prescription was performed. Regarding opinions of the interaction between psychotherapy and medication, some psychotherapists considered that the treatments were difficult to combine and should be kept separate, whereas the majority of the psychotherapists advocated an integration of the treatments. On the basis of the survey responses, this paper discusses different aspects of how the prescribing of medication during psychotherapy can be understood and carried out.
Author: Johan Schubert
Affiliation: Institute of Psychotherapy. Stockholm
DOI: 10.1080/13642530701363494
Publication Frequency: 4 issues per year
Published in: journal European Journal of Psychotherapy & Counselling, Volume 9, Issue 2 June 2007 , pages 191 – 207