Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) is one
of the short term therapies that have been
proven to be effective for the treatment
of depression. Short term
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).
