Study	Reason for exclusion
Brodaty 1983	Length of sessions only 30 min
Budman 1988	Compared individual STPP to an active treatment: group STPP
Fairburn 1986	Short‐form focal therapy compared with an active treatment: cognitive behavioural approach
Gallagher 1982	Compared STPP with 2 active treatments: behavioural therapy and cognitive therapy
Gallagher‐Thompson 1994	Brief psychodynamic therapy compared with an active treatment, cognitive‐behavioural therapy, for clinically depressed family carers
Gilbert 1982	Group therapy
Hall 1987	Randomised controlled trial of 30 females with anorexia nervosa. Excluded because the treatment group was a combined individual psychodynamic psychotherapy and family therapy approach
Hardy 1995	Psychodynamic‐interpersonal therapy was compared with an active control: cognitive behavioural therapy
Hellerstein 1998	STDP was compared with an active treatment control
Knekt 2004	Compared STPP with active comparators
Maina 2009	Participants included in this long‐term follow‐up study only include remitters who were not a randomised sample of original participants
McLean 1979	Short‐term psychotherapy was compared with active controls in people with depression
Morris 1975	Group therapy
Nanzer 2012	Not a randomised controlled trial
Piper 1998	A randomised controlled trial comparing 2 active forms of therapy, interpretive and supportive forms of short‐term individual psychotherapy, in adult outpatients with a variety of axis I and II diagnoses
Shapiro 1987	Exploratory (relationship‐oriented) therapy, a "nonspecific dynamic therapy" was compared was an active control
Shapiro 1995	Psychodynamic‐interpersonal therapy was compared with an active control, cognitive behavioural therapy
Simpson 2003	Use of a brief therapy by general practitioners in people with chronic depression. Method of psychotherapy used was "Freudian psychoanalysis", which is not a standard STPP
Sjodin 1986	Short‐term psychotherapy in combination with medical treatment was compared with medical treatment only in people with chronic peptic ulcer disease. This was a study from 20 years ago before the introduction of triple therapy for the eradication of Helicobacter pylori
Svartberg 2004	STDP was compared with cognitive therapy, an active treatment control
Thompson 1987	STDP was compared with 2 active treatments and a delayed treatment condition. Data for the wait‐list could not be compared with the treatment as it was a partially case‐controlled study, with the participants in the wait‐list groups ultimately being incorporated into the treatment conditions
Vinnars 2005	Control group was an active psychotherapy

min: minutes; STDP: short‐term dynamic psychotherapy; STPP: short‐term psychodynamic psychotherapy.