The College’s Mood Disorders Steering Group, Chaired by Prof Bruce Singh AM, has been leading the commissioning of an independent consultancy to conduct a review into the evidence for long-term psychodynamic psychotherapy in the treatment of mood disorders.  

The Anna Freud Centre (AFC), based in the United Kingdom, was the successful applicant and have commenced their review as of 3 October 2023.

The consultancy team from the Anna Freud Centre is led by Prof Peter Fonagy OBE (Chief Executive at Anna Freud and Head of the Division of Psychology and Language Sciences at University College London), Prof Steve Pilling (Head, University College London Clinical, Educational, and Health Psychology Department), and Dr Chloe Campbell (Deputy Director, Psychoanalysis Unit, University College London Clinical, Educational, and Health Psychology Department).  

Over the coming months the review will be:

• Providing a systematic review and meta-analysis of existing literature on the effectiveness of long-term psychodynamic psychotherapy and comparator treatments in the treatment of mood disorders.
• Providing a systematic review of qualitative and experiential evidence in relation to the treatment of mood disorders in Australia and New Zealand/Aotearoa from the perspective of consumers, carers, and professionals.
• Conducting one-to-one online interviews with healthcare professionals and individuals with lived experience of either receiving psychotherapy treatment for mood disorder or caring for someone who has received psychotherapy treatment for mood disorder.

The review will include engaging with individuals with lived experience of mood disorders, and their experience of treatment options, to ensure that those perspectives are included in the evidence for long-term psychodynamic psychotherapy in the treatment of mood disorders.

For further information, please contact policy@ranzcp.org.