This is a FIRST AWARD application to test the acceptability, and efficacy of Interpersonal Psychotherapy for depressed adolescents (IPT-A) in a pilot controlled clinical trial with random assignment. Two products of the study will be 1) a detailed training program to train therapists in IPT-A, and 3 trained therapists who will participate in the controlled clinical trial and 2) the results of a pilot controlled clinical trial of IPT-A. Despite the high prevalence of depression in adolescents and its associated suicide risk and social morbidity, evidence for the efficacy of treatments is nearly absent. The few clinical trials testing the efficacy of pharmacotherapy in this age group have not demonstrated their effectiveness. While psychotherapy is widely used for depressed adolescents, there is not one published controlled clinical trial testing the efficacy of any individual psychotherapy in this population. Interpersonal psychotherapy has been tested and shown to be efficacious in five clinical trials with ambulatory depressed adults. It is a brief treatment focused on reducing the patients' symptoms and addressing the current interpersonal problems associated with the onset of depression. IPT has been modified by the P.I., in association with the developer of IPT, to address the developmental issues common to adolescents and these modifications have been specified in a manual. A 12-week pilot controlled clinical trial comparing IPT-A to a non-scheduled treatment control group, as was used in one of the acute treatment studies of IPT in adults, is proposed to be conducted with 50 outpatient adolescents with a major depression according to DSM-III-R criteria; A larger controlled clinical trial will be developed and submitted for funding prior to the conclusion of the FIRST award.
| Mufson, L; Weissman, M M; Moreau, D et al. (1999) Efficacy of interpersonal psychotherapy for depressed adolescents. Arch Gen Psychiatry 56:573-9 |
