Role of The Interpersonal Psychotherapy of Depression in Clinical Settings: Comparison with Cognitive Behavioural Therapies and Medical Treatment Procedures

Abstract

Interpersonal psychotherapies (IPT) are structured approach that focuses on symptom management through solving interpersonal problematic processes. The focus is on four main interpersonal problems: mourning, interpersonal conflicts, role changes and social isolation. Although it is used in the treatment of disorders such as eating disorders, anxiety disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder nowadays, it is actually a procedure which was developed for the outpatients with depression. In this review, it is aimed to examine (IPT) which take part in studies as one of the most popular modules, while not commonly used in real clinical settings and psychotherapy centres. Also, efficacy studies were observed to be more weighted compared to the effectiveness studies.Although the efficacy studies provide valuable contributions about the efficacy of IPT on depression, the exact procedures may be hard to follow in clinical settings. Relying on the reasons explained above, in this review, it is aimed to provide information about effectiveness researches more. By doing so, it is hoped to draw a portrait of IPT on depression in real clinical settings. Firstly, the studies in which IPT was chosen as the single module of the treament were presented. Then, comparative studies conducted with Cognitive Behavioral Therapies and Medical Therapies were discussed. Findings suggested it is noteworthy that IPT is an effective method in the treatment of depression. On the other hand, comparative studies conducted with both medical treatments and Cognitive Behavioral Therapies indicate that CPT has no superiority over any other approach.

Keywords

• Depression
• Interpersonal Psychotherapy
• Cognitive Behavioural Therapy
• Medical Treatment