O impacto dos sintomas depressivos na remissão dos sintomas depressivos em psicoterapias breves para depressão: follow-up de seis meses

Abstract

Introduction: The literature indicates high occurrence of anxiety symptoms in people who have depression, this index simultaneously suggests the importance of studying the impact of anxiety symptoms in treatment for depression. Objective: To evaluate the impact of anxiety symptoms in remission of depressive symptoms in brief psychotherapies for depression at follow-up six months. Methods: Randomized clinical trial with youth of 18 to 29 years old who met diagnostic criteria for depression assessed by the Structured Clinical Interview for DSM (SCID). Depressive symptoms were assessed using the Hamilton Depression Scale (HAM-D), while the anxiety symptoms were assessed using the Hamilton Anxiety Scale (HAM-A). The protocols of psychotherapy used were: Cognitive Narrative Psychotherapy (CNP) and Cognitive Behavioral Psychotherapy (CBP), both with seven sessions. At the end of treatment and at follow-up six months an evaluation was made with the HAM-D and HAM-A. Results: The sample included 97 patients divided evenly between the protocols of psychotherapy. There was a significant positive moderate correlation between the severity of anxiety symptoms at baseline and remission of depressive symptoms at post-intervention (r = 0.444 p <0.001), while at follow-up six months not there was a significant correlation (r = 0.181 p = 0.164). There was remission of anxiety symptoms (8.69 ± 7.93) and depressive symptoms (6.38 ± 5.4o) after the brief psychotherapies. The remission of anxiety symptoms remained at follow-up of six months (7.59 ± 8.31, p = 0,228) and the same was true for the remission if depressive symptoms (6.48 ± 5.04, p = 0,879). Conclusion: The severity of anxiety symptoms contributed to greater remission of depressive symptoms after brief psychotherapies in the short term. However, in long term, the severity of the anxiety symptoms has no impact on the remission of the depressive symptoms. The brief psychotherapies for depression demonstrate efficacy in the remission of depressive and anxious symptoms