Fredric N. Busch, MD

Although multiple interventions exist for major depressive disorder (MDD), only partial response is achieved in many patients and recurrence is common. Combining medication and psychotherapy may enable more effective treatment of MDD.

After scoring high on the Panic Disorder Severity Scale, this patient sought panic-focused psychodynamic therapy.

Both cognitive-behavioral and pharmacological treatments for panic disorder have been found to be effective over the short term. Not all patients, however, can tolerate or fully respond to these approaches, and the effectiveness of these interventions over the long term remains unclear.

The advent of safer psychopharmacological agents with less troublesome side effects, along with increasing knowledge of the broad array of syndromes treatable with medication, have led to a vast expansion in treatment options available to the psychiatrist. Studies and clinical experience demonstrate that employing psychotropic medication in combination with psychoanalysis or psychodynamic psychotherapy now occurs with increasing frequency.