Change Process Research in Psychotherapy in Adulthood in Patients with Depression: A Systematic Review of the Last Decade

Change process research in psychotherapy is the study of the processes by which change occurs in psychotherapy. Since depression is a problem with high prevalence and various complications, it is an unavoidable task for clinicians to be able to understand how the process of change occurs in patients with this diagnosis. Therefore, this study aims to carry out a systematic review of the literature, to explore and analyze the empirical investigation of the process of change in individual psychotherapy in adulthood in patients with depression, in the last ten years. The review was carried out in the Web of Science, APA PsycNet, PubMed and EBSCO databases, following the guidelines indicated by the PRISMA methodology. After the screening and review process, 39 articles were selected and analyzed. There is a clear tendency to use mixed research methodologies, that is, qualitative and quantitative, with longitudinal designs in almost all the studies and a wide range of instruments for data collection. The results suggest that the change process tends to follow a non-linear development, commonly causing deep positive changes in diverse areas and with trajectories that tend to common patterns.