[Pharmacotherapy plus psychotherapy in patients with mood disorder and Axis II codiagnosis. A review].

Aim: The main aim of this paper is to review data on the efficacy of combined therapy in patients with mood disorder and axis II codiagnosis. The secondary aim is to assess the impact of personality disorders, psychotherapies, and combination therapy approaches on the treatment outcome.

Materials And Methods: We searched the Medline database using the following syntax: "major depressive disorder", "bipolar depression", "personality disorder", "comorbidity", "epidemiology", "combined therapy", "sequential therapy". The search included studies published up to february 2011. We divided the selected studies on the basis of the following pharmacotherapy and psychotherapy combination treatment approaches: concurrent treatment, sequential treatment and cross-over treatment.

Results: We found six studies about this topic. They show that in patients with unipolar depression combined therapy does not increase significantly the remission rate of the acute phases. However, combined treatment has greater effects on social functioning, interpersonal sensitivity and aggressiveness than pharmacological treatment. The studies indicate also that in patients with either unipolar or bipolar disorder combined therapy is more effective than pharmacological therapy in reducing relapses.

Discussion: The available limited data suggest that in patients with mood disorder and axis II codiagnosis pharmacological and psychological combined therapy is useful. In these patients the type of combination approach does not seem to influence the treatment outcome.