International Journal of Transactional Analysis Research & Practice Vol 9 No 1, June 2018 www.ijtarp.org Page 42 TA Treatment of Depression: A Hermeneutic Single- Case Efficacy Design Study – Beatrice © 2018 Enrico Benelli, Francesca Vulpiani, Giorgio Cristiano Cavallero, Vincenzo Calvo, Stefania Mannarini, Arianna Palmieri and Mariavittoria Zanchetta Abstract This study is the sixth of a series of seven and belongs to the second Italian systematic replication of findings from previous series that investigated the effectiveness of a manualized transactional analysis treatment for depression through Hermeneutic Single- Case Efficacy Design. The therapist was a white Italian woman with 10 years of clinical experience and the client, Beatrice, was a 45-year old white Italian woman who attended sixteen sessions of transactional analysis psychotherapy. Beatrice satisfied DSM 5 criteria for Major Depressive Disorder, Anxious Distress, with Dependent and Histrionic Personality Traits. The judges evaluated the case as a good outcome: the depressive and anxious symptomatology clinically and reliably improved over the course of the therapy and these improvements were maintained throughout the duration of the follow up intervals. Furthermore, the client reported significant change in her post-treatment interview and these changes were directly attributed to the therapy. Key words Systematic Case Study Research; Hermeneutic Single-Case Efficacy Design; Transactional Analysis Psychotherapy; Major Depressive Disorder; Anxious Distress; Dependent Personality Traits; Histrionic Personality Traits. Introduction This Hermeneutic Single-Case Efficacy Design (HSCED) is the sixth of a series of seven, and belongs to an Italian systematic replication of findings from previous case series (Widdowson 2012a, 2012b, 2012c, 2013, 2014; Benelli, 2016a, 2016b, 2016c, 2017a, 2017b, 2017c) and is conducted under the auspices of the project ‘Transactional Analysis meets Academic Research in order to become an Empirically Supported Treatment: an Italian two-year plan for publishing evidence of Transactional Analysis efficacy and effectiveness into worldwide recognized scientific journals’, funded by the European Association for Transactional Analysis (EATA). Previous publications have widely described the rationale for supporting by HSCED the accumulation of evidences of efficacy and effectiveness for those models of psychotherapy that are emerging or marginalized (Benelli, De Carlo, Biffi & McLeod, 2015) and specifically how this is important for recognition of TA and inclusion within the acknowledged treatments for common mental disorders (i.e., depression, anxiety and personality disorders) (Widdowson 2012a, 2012b, 2012c, 2013, 2014; Benelli, 2016a, 2016b, 2016c, 2017a, 2017b, 2017c). The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of the manualised TA treatment of depression (Widdowson, 2016) applied to a major depressive disorder in comorbidity with anxious distress. The quantitative primary outcomes investigated were depressive and anxious symptomatology, the secondary outcomes were global distress and client-generated personal problems, which were analysed both quantitatively and qualitatively. The present study analyses the treatment of ‘Beatrice’, a 45-year-old Italian woman with diagnosis of major depressive disorder in comorbidity with anxious distress, dependent and histrionic personality disorder. Ethical Considerations The research protocol follows the requirements of the ethical code for Research in Psychotherapy of the Italian Association of Psychology, and the American Psychological Association guidelines on the rights and confidentiality of research participants. The research protocol has been approved by the Ethical Committee 9 (1), 42-63 https://doi.org/10.29044/v9i2p42