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	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

To the Editor: Dr Williams and colleagues¹ found that paroxetine was superior to psychotherapy in treating dysthymia and minor depression among older patients in a primary care setting. However, their study was seriously flawed in the choice and administration of the psychotherapy component.

The patients who received psychotherapy were provided a previously unknown and untested protocol called problem-solving treatment–primary care (PST-PC). Although PST-PC is reportedly based on cognitive-behavioral principles, the authors noted that the procedure is unpublished, making it an unknown entity that has not been peer reviewed. Furthermore, although the study used psychotherapists from a variety of disciplines, these practitioners presumably were not allowed to use more common psychotherapeutic interventions. Thus, this was a test of PST-PC, not psychotherapy.

The authors also report that the psychotherapy patients received a total of 6 sessions during 10 weeks, the first session lasted 1 hour and the remaining 5 treatment sessions lasted . . . [Full Text of this Article]

RELATED ARTICLE

Treatment of Dysthymia and Minor Depression in Primary Care: A Randomized Controlled Trial in Older Adults
John W. Williams, Jr, James Barrett, Tom Oxman, Ellen Frank, Wayne Katon, Mark Sullivan, John Cornell, and Anjana Sengupta
JAMA. 2000;284(12):1519-1526.
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