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Depression is a serious condition that is associated with great psychic suffering and major impairments on the patient's general health, quality of life, and social and occupational activities. In some cases, it may lead to suicide. Regardless of the innumerous research works that have already addressed depression in wide and specific facets, there is still a lot to grasp in order to effectively help preventing and treating depression. This work presents data from a randomized clinical trial that sought to evaluate the effectiveness of two brief psychotherapeutic for Depression: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Supportive-Expressive Dynamic Psychotherapy (SEDP). This was a convenience sample composed of 46 individuals that were evaluated using a structured diagnostic interview and then randomly allocated to the SEDP group. We examined baseline and post-intervention serum levels of the Interleukin-6 (IL-6) and the Tumor Necrosis Factor (TNF-α) in addition to the severity of depressive symptoms according to the Outcome Questionnaire - 45.2 (OQ-45.2) and the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). Results show that serum IL-6 and TNF-α levels, as well as the scores from the OQ-45.2 and the BDI significantly decreased after 16 sessions of SEDP (p < 0.001), except for the Interpersonal Relationship domain from the OQ-45. Despite the reduction of serum cytokines levels and OQ-45 and BDI scores, they were only significantly correlated regarding the social role domain from the OQ-45. Nonetheless, our data suggests an effective role of brief psychodynamic psychotherapy in the reduction of depressive symptoms and serum inflammatory levels that are associated with depression.

To evaluate the effect of cognitive therapy on biological rhythm and depressive and anxious symptoms in a twelve-month follow-up period. In addition, correlations between the reduction of depression and anxiety symptoms and the regulation of biological rhythm were observed.This was a randomized clinical trial with young adults from 18 to 29 years of age who were diagnosed with depression. Two models of psychotherapy were used: Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and Narrative Cognitive Therapy (NCT). Biological rhythm was assessed with the Biological Rhythm Interview of Assessment in Neuropsychiatry (BRIAN). Severity of depressive and anxious symptoms was assessed by the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) and the Hamilton Anxiety Rating Scale (HARS), respectively. The sample included 97 patients who were divided within the protocols of psychotherapy.There was a significant reduction in depressive and anxious symptoms (p0.001) and an increase on regulation of biological rhythm (p0.05) at the twelve-month follow-up. Moreover, we showed a positive correlation between the reduction of depressive symptoms and regulation of biological rhythm (r=0.638; p0.001) and between the reduction of anxious symptoms and regulation of biological rhythm (r=0.438; p0.001).Both models showed that cognitive therapy was effective on the reduction of depressive and anxious symptoms and on the regulation of biological rhythm at a twelve-month follow-up evaluation. This study highlights the association between biological rhythm and symptoms of depression and anxiety.We did not assess genetic, hormonal or neurochemical factors and we did not include patients under pharmaceutical treatment or those with severe symptomatology.