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Copyright: ©Author(s) 2026. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license. No commercial re-use. See permissions. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc.
World J Psychiatry. Apr 19, 2026; 16(4): 114215
Published online Apr 19, 2026. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v16.i4.114215
Professional interventions affect outcome in depressed patients
Henriette Löffler-Stastka, Ursula Narath
Henriette Löffler-Stastka, Department of Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy, Medical University Vienna, Vienna 1090, Austria
Ursula Narath, University Program of Psychotherapy Research, Medical University Vienna, Vienna 1090, Austria
Author contributions: Löffler-Stastka H and Narath U participated in the conception and design of the study and were involved in the acquisition, analysis, or interpretation of data, wrote the manuscript, accessed and verified the study data; all authors thoroughly reviewed and endorsed the final manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: This study was approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of Medical University Vienna, approval No. 1561/2023.
Informed consent statement: The need for patient consent was waived due to the retrospective nature of the study.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Data sharing statement: Additional data are available on request from the corresponding author.
Corresponding author: Henriette Löffler-Stastka, MD, PhD, Dean, Director, Department of Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy, Medical University Vienna, Währinger Gürtel 18-20, Vienna 1090, Austria. henriette.loeffler-stastka@meduniwien.ac.at
Received: September 15, 2025
Revised: October 27, 2025
Accepted: December 10, 2025
Published online: April 19, 2026
Processing time: 197 Days and 20.1 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: This article investigated long-term effectiveness of professional competencies, which deals with detailed description of process and progression of therapeutic work using Core Competency Q-Sort Coding. Interesting findings were made with regard to core competencies that cluster around healing work on implicit memory: More confrontational interventions were used significantly more intensively in first sessions and contributed to remarkable therapeutic success; attitude elements tended to be more effective towards the end of treatment. Individual case evaluations show that working through representations relevant to the patient’s inner life and socialization history in the present moment can help achieve successful therapeutic processes.