More than 250 empirical studies support the efficacy and effectiveness of Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT), for a variety of affective disorders, anxiety disorders, and eating disorders and for a wide range of clients from children to the elderly.
IPT is recognized as evidence-based by many professional bodies including the American Psychiatric Association, the American Psychological Association, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence in the UK, the International Cochrane Collaboration and Australia’s Medicare Better Access initiative. The efficacy of IPT in treating depression is supported by large scale randomised control trials (eg Weissman et al 1979; Elkin et al 1989) and meta-analysis of comparative studies (eg Cuijpers et al, 2011; Zhou et al, 2015).
IPT was developed in the mid 1980s for the management of depression. IPT was adapted for adolescents with depression in 1993 and revised in 2004. Interpersonal psychotherapy for depressed adolescents (IPT-A) has developed a sound evidence base. Recent studies suggest IPT-A is readily learned by experienced clinicians and effective in the management of depression in adolescents, including in school-based settings.
Anthony Hillin 