[Evidence for Psychodynamic Therapy for Children and Adolescents]. / Evidenz für psychoanalytisch begründete Verfahren für Kinder und Jugendliche.

In Germany, cognitive-behavioral therapy, psychodynamic therapy, and systemic therapy are scientifically and legally approved as suitable procedures for treating mental disorders. While all methods have provided empirical evidence of their effectiveness in adults according to defined criteria of the "Scientific Advisory Board for Psychotherapy" (in German: "Wissenschaftlicher Beirat Psychotherapie"), i. e., the official board which decides upon the formal scientific approval of psychotherapeutic approaches in Germany, an evaluation is lacking for the psychodynamic methods in children and adolescents. Against this background, we evaluated the available empirical data for psychodynamic therapy in children and adolescents based on the methods paper of the "Scientific Advisory Board for Psychotherapy" (2019; version 2.9). Published reviews served as the basis for identifying relevant studies, supplemented by a systematic literature search. We identified 91 potentially relevant studies but could not consider the majority of these due to formal exclusion criteria (mainly not disorder-specific, no control group). Up to 26 of the remaining studies provide evidence of efficacy as defined by the "Scientific Advisory Board for Psychotherapy". These cover 10 of the 18 areas of application as defined by the "Scientific Advisory Board for Psychotherapy". According to our evaluation, the reviewed studies provide empirical evidence for the three most relevant areas of application (i. e., affective disorders; anxiety disorders and obsessive-compulsive disorders; hyperkinetic disorders and conduct disorders). Thus, the available evidence supports the suitability of psychodynamic therapy as a method for the treatment of children and adolescents.

[Efficacy studies in the field of psychotherapy--psychoanalytical and psychodynamic psychology--for children and adolescents: a survey]. / Wirksamkeitsstudien im Bereich der tiefenpsy- chologisch fundierten und analytischen Kinder- und Jugendlichenpsychotherapie: eine Ubersicht.

An overview is given of the development of efficacy research in the field of psychoanalytically justified procedures for psychotherapy for children and adolescents in German-speaking countries and internationally. It is ascertained that there exists a shortfall in the empirical research on analytical psychotherapy for children and adolescents in comparison with other psychotherapy processes in the field of psychotherapy for children and adolescents. The available studies nevertheless give evidence for the efficacy of analytical psychotherapy for children and adolescents. The available catamneses also give a good naturalistic portrayal of the reality of treatment under delivery conditions. An allocation and evaluation of the individual studies in accordance with the application areas and minimum requirements set by the Wissenschaftliche Beirat (scientific advisory board) according to 11 PsychThG (Psychotherapeutengesetz = law for psychotherapy). More recent studies, which present a combination of waiting control group design and naturalistic field portrayal, establish the efficacy of analytical psychotherapy for children and adolescents under supply conditions. The disorder-specific studies on depressive, anxiety and behavioural disorders (Horn et al. 2005, Kronmüller et al. 2005 and Winkelmann et al. 2005) give the first and only controlled and naturalistic evidence of the efficacy of analytical psychotherapy for children and adolescents in outpatient care in Germany.