Interpersonal Psychotherapy for Adolescents and Young Adults

Condition(s) studied

Investigational drug(s) / intervention(s)

Interpersonal Psychotherapy for Adolescents (IPT-A): Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) is a psychotherapeutic treatment originally developed for treating depression in adults. It is a brief, structured treatment based on the idea of mobilizing the patient's social network, increasing his/her capacity to accept and seek support from others, and to process interpersonal difficulties, in order to improve depressive symptoms. Interpersonal psychotherapy for adolescents (IPT-A) is a version of IPT designed for young people between the age of 12-18 years with depression (Mufson, 2004), and is in many respects similar to IPT although with some modifications (e.g., a few scheduled meetings with parents during the course of treatment).

Study summary

The purpose of the project is to study the effectiveness of Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) for adolescents with depression. Specific aims are to analyze the effects, change mechanisms, predictors, and implementation of IPT for youth. In this four-year project we will include 60 patients with depression. Outcome will be studied using a quasi-experimental multiple-baseline design. Change mechanisms will be studied in the form of mentalizing, emotion regulation, social support, and working alliance session-by-session, and with post-treatment qualitative interviews about the participants' experiences of change. Predictors of effectiveness of IPT for adolescents will be explored by measuring severity of symptoms, anxiety symptoms, presence and severity of parent-child conflicts, quality of interpersonal relationships, experiences of bullying, and school functioning. The implementation process of IPT for youth will be studied through interviews with adolescents, parents, therapists, co-workers, and local managers.

The study is conducted within child and adolescent psychiatric services in Norrköping using a practice-oriented research strategy which emphasizes close collaboration with clinicians. The project is a collaboration between researchers at Linnaeus University and Linköping University, and clinicians at BUP Norrköping.

Eligibility

Primary outcome measure(s)

• Patient Health Questionnaire - 9 for depression/Eating Disorder Inventory - Very Short for eating disorder patients — Change from treatment start to week 12 compared to change from before waiting-list to treatment start. In the multiple baseline design, the time for the waiting list varies, in this case about 4-25 weeks.
  Patient-rated depression/eating disorder severity. Scale from 0-27 points, with higher scores indicating more severe symptoms.
• Montgomery Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (observer version) for depression/Eating Disorder Inventory for eating disorders — Change from treatment start to week 12 compared to change from before waiting-list to treatment start. In the multiple baseline design, the time for the waiting list varies, in this case about 4-25 weeks.
  Depression/eating disorder severity measures. Scale from 0-60 points, with higher scores indicating more severe symptoms..

Trial sites (1)

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