Drugs and Group Psychotherapy in Neurotic Depression

Chronically depressed neurotic women outpatients were randomly assigned, after a two-week placebo washout period, to receive one of three medications (imipramine, diazepam, or placebo) and to either weekly group psychotherapy or biweekly brief supportive sessions at one of two clinics. Analyses of covariance for the first 16 weeks of active treatment (N = 146) indicated a marked therapeutic advantage for imipramine on most of the outcome measures. No advantage for group therapy was detected on these measures. Patients who showed improvement were continued in further controlled drug treatment for up to a total of 71 weeks; preliminary analyses of this phase showed some continuing advantage for treatment with imipramine.