Interpersonal Psychotherapy for Adolescent Depression

Abstract

Interpersonal psychotherapy for adolescents (IPT-A) is a short-term treatment for adolescents with major depression. Unlike most supportive, expressive forms of psychotherapy that are often used to treat depressed adolescents and are not standardised, IPT-A has a treatment manual available (Mufson et al., 1993) and specific training is required for the therapist. Unfortunately, there is no training centre yet in the U.K., although several groups, including ours, are developing expertise in IPT-A. This paper discusses the role of IPT-A, outlines the structure of sessions, and offers an analysis of the differences between this and other therapies.