Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors in the Context of an Ongoing Analysis

In the last 2 decades the practice of combining psychoanalysis and pharmacotherapy has become well established. While concerns were once expressed about the potential of medication to interfere with the analytic process, there now appears to be a growing consensus that the two may work synergistically to enhance the overall treatment course for most patients. This acceptance has been reflected in surveys of analytic groups, such as the members of the American Academy of Psychoanalysis, where 90 percent of respondents to a questionnaire said they prescribed medications (Normand and Bluestone, 1986). In a study at the Columbia University Center for Psychoanalytic Training and Research (Roose and Stern, 1995), pharmacotherapy was combined with psychoanalysis in 29 percent of the candidates' control cases, suggesting that medication is no longer seen as a contaminant that will interfere with certification of the newly graduated.

In parallel with the increasingly common practice of combining medication and analysis, a literature has emerged examining the conceptual and clinical issues involved in such combined treatments (Ostow, 1983; Sarwer-Foner, 1983; Wylie and Wylie, 1987; Azim and Duncan, 1990;