[Psychotherapy in chronic depression].

Patients with chronic depression constitute a problem group because of therapy resistance, symptom severity, and impaired psychosocial functioning. Compared with healthy groups, they show increased comorbidity with psychological and medical disorders, report more adverse conditions in childhood, show problematic interpersonal behaviors, and differ in structural characteristics of their thought processes. For these reasons, several specific treatment manuals have been developed for this target population. First results suggest that specific psychotherapy may be effective in chronic depression.