Long-Term Psychodynamic Group Therapy for Patients with Personality

Given the impact of managed care on mental health service delivery, with its focus on discrete psychiatric problems that are amenable to “less costly” short–term therapeutic approaches, what are clinicians to do with patients suffering from severe and chronic personality disorders? Traditionally, such people have been treated using longer–term approaches that utilize psychodynamic theories and techniques. In the area of group therapy, empirical studies evaluating the effectiveness of this treatment model are rare. Recently, however, two such studies have emerged from Oslo, Norway, that suggest that psychodynamic group therapy may be of value for patients with personality disorders.