Symptomatic distress and personality functioning before, during, and after long-term psychoanalytic treatment

In recent years psychoanalytically oriented researchers have invested in outcome studies to provide empirical evidence for the effectiveness of their treatments. This has led to a considerable (and still growing) body of research about the effectiveness of long-term ambulatory psychoanalytic treatment (Leichsenring and Rabung 2008; Shedler 2010). The present study investigated whether long-term psychoanalytic treatment (psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic psychotherapy) is effective in reducing symptomatic distress and improving personality functioning