Interpersonal Psychotherapy for Depression: A Meta-Analysis

Abstract

Objective Interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT), a structured and time-limited therapy, has been studied in many controlled trials. Numerous practice guidelines have recommended IPT as a treatment of choice for unipolar depressive disorders. The authors conducted a meta-analysis to integrate research on the effects of IPT. Method The authors searched 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. Maintenance studies were also included. Results Thirty-eight studies including 4,356 patients met all inclusion criteria. The overall effect size (Cohen’s d) of the 16 studies that compared IPT and a control group was 0.63 (95% confidence interval [CI]=0.36 to 0.90), corresponding to a number needed to treat of 2.91. Ten studies comparing IPT and other psychological treatments showed a nonsignificant differential effect size of 0.04 (95% CI=−0.14 to 0.21; number needed to treat=45.45) favoring IPT. Pharmacotherapy (after removal of one outlier) was more effective than IPT (d=−0.19, 95% CI=−0.38 to −0.01; number needed to treat=9.43), and combination treatment was not more effective than IPT alone, although the paucity of studies precluded drawing definite conclusions. 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). Conclusions There is no doubt that IPT efficaciously treats depression, both as an independent treatment and in combination with pharmacotherapy. IPT deserves its place in treatment guidelines as one of the most empirically validated treatments for depression.

Is interpersonal counselling (IPC) sufficient treatment for depression in primary care patients? A pilot study comparing IPC and interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT)

“…The control regimen for IPC was an empirically validated high-intensity treatment modality, interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) (Cuijpers et al, 2011;Markowitz & Weissman, 2012). In order to assess the benefits of a therapy method, one should design the control therapy so that it is similar in all other respects (e.g.…”

Psychotherapies for depression in low‐ and middle‐income countries: a meta‐analysis

“…Since the 1970s, several hundreds of randomized trials have shown that these interventions are effective [11][12][13][14] , although their effects are modest and have been overestimated because of the low quality of many trials 15 and publication bias 16,17 . The effects of psychotherapies have been found to be comparable to those of pharmacotherapy 18 , and probably last longer 19 .…”

What we know, what we do not know, and where are we heading? Efficacy and acceptability of psychological interventions for depression

“…In a large RCT, Elkin et al (1989) found that IPT is equally effective to medication and CBT, with some evidence for increased efficacy of IPT for severely depressed patients. There is also preliminary evidence suggesting the superiority of IPT over alternative psychotherapies (Cuijpers et al 2008(Cuijpers et al , 2011, specifically supportive counselling (Barth et al 2013) and CBT (de Mello et al 2005).…”