Interpersonal Psychotherapy for Depression
Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) is one of the short term therapies that have been proven to be effective for the treatment of depression. Short term psychotherapy usually involves up to 20 sessions (usually weekly meetings, 1 hour per session) and maintains a focus on 1-2 key issues that seem to be most closely related to the depression.
Although depression may not be caused by interpersonal events, it usually has an interpersonal component, that is, it affects relationships and roles in those relationships. IPT was developed to address these interpersonal issues. The precise focus of the therapy targets interpersonal events (such as interpersonal disputes / conflicts, interpersonal role transitions, complicated grief that goes beyond the normal bereavement period) that seem to be most important in the onset and / or maintenance of the depression. The first 1-3 session of IPT are devoted to assessment and identification of the specific interpersonal issue(s) that will be the focus of the remainder of the therapy.
IPT may not be effective in all cases, however, several years of careful study has shown that IPT is equally as effective in the short term treatment of depression as anti-depressant medication therapy. IPT can also work well in conjunction with medications. The decision to use IPT and medications for depression is based on a number of factors such as the severity of the depression, past treatment history, and patient preferences. An IPT clinician (such as a psychologist, psychiatrist or social worker) should present treatment options during the assessment phase and discuss the rationale for IPT.
Since depression is a recurrent illness, it is recommended that successful short term treatment be combined with ongoing, maintenance therapy. Maintenance IPT (IPT-M) can be administered once per month following termination of the short term phase. Preliminary results from ongoing studies suggest that IPT-M may prolong time to recurrence of depression (Frank et al., 1990).
To find out more about IPT:
International Society for Interpersonal Psychotherapy
Books
Frank, E., Kupfer, D., Perel, J.M., Cornes, C., Jarrett, D.B., Mallinger, A.G., McEachran, A.B., Grochocinski, V.J. (1990). Three-year outcomes for maintenance therapies in recurrent depression. Arch Gen Psychiatry. Dec:47(12), 1093-9.
