FLi is delighted to host a much needed INTERDISCIPLINARY DIALOGUE with psychiatry and the psychotherapies looking at the evidence supporting the efficacy of psychoanalytic therapy (PAT) in the treatment of chronically depressed adults who have experienced adverse childhood events.

In light of the prevalence of adverse childhood events in Irish society, SVAI, and which has been brought to light in recent years through the revelations of clerical abuse towards children FLi consider it necessary and vital that proven, effective modes of intervention are highlighted, considered and offered in the treatment of chronic conditions emanating from these experiences. FLi is dedicated to facilitating this discussion.

WELCOMING Lina Krakau – THE LAC STUDY

Serving to anchor this event is a recent publication in the British Journal of Psychiatry – Childhood trauma and differential response to long-term psychoanalytic versus cognitive–behavioural therapy for chronic depression in adults. (Krakau et al, 2024).

https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.2024.112     open access

THE LAC STUDY; a multicentre, controlled, single blind four-arm trial, with a preference and a randomized section; of over 5-years duration, with 252 participants between 21 and 60 years of age. Data assessment was made at entry (t0), at one year (t1), at 2 years (t2), at 3 years (t3), at 4 years (t4), at 5 years (t5) This included assessments post treatment (t4 & t5) to look at possibility of differential continuing improvements in the 2 modalities of treatment.

https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429281112-12

Lina Krakau, a doctoral researcher on the LAC depression study will be with us, in person, to introduce us to the study design and implementation as well as describing the findings and implications for practice.  Lina has been involved in the writing of a number of multi-authored published peer-reviewed articles reporting many of the findings of the LAC study.

Krakau et al (2024) shows that:

• Childhood trauma has a differential effect on symptom change: participants who reported more childhood trauma improved more in PAT than in CBT over a 5-year period.
• The reliable and lasting psychoanalytic setting with high session frequency creates a special opportunity to activate old, often not fully conscious memories and observe their influence on present-day construal and emotional experiences with high emotional intensity and vividness that can have pervasive effects on a person’s functioning.

https://doi.org/10.1192/bjp.2024.112 open access

The Freud Lacan Institute’s aims for this gathering:

• FLi wishes to highlight the findings of this very recent study and to provide a forum in Ireland, within which psychoanalysts, psychiatrists, psychologists, mental health care professionals and other stakeholders can meet with the lead author of this important work (Krakau et al, 2024) in a bid to understand the design, implementation, results and implications for practice of this five-year, multi-location, mixed-method research project.
• To improve and enhance treatment opportunities considering the most recent and robust evidence for those suffering from chronic depression, and to highlight the evidence relating to adverse childhood experiences.
• In advocating for the provision of these long-term treatment options for the chronically depressed, FLi hopes to move psychoanalytic therapy (PAT) to a more central position within the culture of mental health services in Ireland.
• FLi also wishes to gather our psychoanalytic colleagues together to celebrate this comprehensive research and to understand how psychoanalysis might be measured scientifically. It does not escape our notice that this is still a controversial concept within psychoanalytic communities. Our hope is that the outcome of facilitating research understanding, via the presentation and discussion of this recent research by Lina Krakau et al., may go some way to improve research literacy and interest amongst the psychoanalytic community and interest in psychoanalysis by the psychiatric community.

We invite your attendance for this conversation and collaboration with allied mental health care professionals, around the efficacy of psychoanalytic therapy (PAT) in the treatment of chronically depressed adults who have experienced adverse childhood events, through understanding the use and place of PAT in Germany, the country of origin of a very large 5yr-long controlled comparative research study, as well as in the UK and Europe.