Psychological treatment in primary care. This issue features four papers on psychological treatment in primary care. An editorial by Scott & Sensky (pp. 191–196) also discusses the methodology of such studies. Bower et al. (pp. 203–215) report a meta-analysis of controlled trials of counselling. There are benefits but they are modest. Consistent with this, Simpson et al. (pp. 229–239) report a controlled trial of psychodynamic counselling in chronic depression, with little benefit over routine GP treatment. Proudfoot et al. (pp. 217–227) report benefit from an innovative computerized interactive cognitive-behavioural program for depression and anxiety. Gabbay et al. (pp. 241–251) report on agreement on baseline problems between patient, GP and therapist from a controlled comparison of cognitive-behavioural therapy and non-directive counselling.