Interpersonal therapy was derived from psychodynamic therapy and from psychoanalysis. The interpersonal therapy model was developed for the treatment of depression and then modified for use with other populations and mental disorders.
Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) intervenes at the levels of symptom formation and social functioning, and does not attempt to alter aspects of the client’s personality. Interpersonal psychotherapy offers two possible treatment plans for persons with depressive symptoms. The first plan treats the acute episode of depression by getting rid of the current depressive symptoms. Many clients terminate treatment at that point, after their symptoms have subsided. Maintenance treatment is the second treatment plan and is much less commonly utilized than acute treatment.
Psychotherapy research is less likely to be biased than other types of treatment research, too, because researchers tend not to be treatment providers nor have any direct (or even indirect) financial incentives in the outcomes of their research.
Interpersonal psychotherapy is considered a structured and time-limited therapy. Interpersonal therapy has been examined in many previous research studies and controlled trials. The authors of the current study (Cuijpers et al., 2011) searched research bibliographical databases for randomized controlled trials comparing IPT with no treatment, usual care, other psychological treatments, and pharmacotherapy as well as studies comparing combination treatment using pharmacotherapy and IPT.
Combination treatment was not more effective than IPT alone, although the researchers argued that, “the paucity of studies precluded drawing definite conclusions.” And significantly, combination maintenance treatment with pharmacotherapy and IPT was more effective in preventing relapse than pharmacotherapy alone (odds ratio=0.37; 95% CI=0.19 to 0.73; number needed to treat=7.63).
There is no doubt that IPT efficaciously treats depression, both as an independent treatment and in combination with pharmacotherapy. The researchers concluded, “IPT deserves its place in treatment guidelines as one of the most empirically validated treatments for depression.”
