Abstract
Objective: Although the effectiveness of interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) and cognitive therapy (CT) for major depression has been established, little is known about how and for whom they work and how they compare in the long term. The latter is especially relevant for IPT because research on its long-term effects has been limited. This overview paper summarizes findings from a Dutch randomized controlled trial on the effects and mechanisms of change of IPT versus CT for major depression.
Methods: Adult outpatients with depression (N=182) were randomly assigned to CT (N=76), IPT (N=75), or a 2-month waitlist control group followed by patient's treatment of choice (N=31). The primary outcome was depression severity. Other outcomes were quality of life, social and general psychological functioning, and scores on various mechanism measures. Interventions were compared at the end of treatment and up to 17 months follow-up.
Results: On average, IPT and CT were both superior to waitlist, and their outcomes did not differ significantly from one another. However, the pathway through which change occurred appeared to differ. For a majority of participants, one of the interventions was predicted to be more beneficial than the other. No support for the theoretical models of change was found.
Conclusions: Outcomes of IPT and CT did not appear to differ significantly. IPT may have an enduring effect not different from that of CT. The field would benefit from further refinement of study methods to disentangle mechanisms of change and from advances in the field of personalized medicine (i.e., person-specific analyses and treatment selection methods).
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 8-14 |
| Journal | American Journal of Psychotherapy |
| Volume | 73 |
| Issue number | 1 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - 2020 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:Send correspondence to Dr. Lemmens (lotte.lemmens@maastrichtuniversity. nl). Portions of this work have been presented at scientific conferences, in lectures and workshops, and at meetings for clinicians between 2012 and 2019. For more information, please contact the corresponding author. This trial was funded by the Dutch-Flemish Research Institute of Experimental Psychopathology and by the Academic Community Mental Health Centre (RIAGG), Maastricht. The funding organizations had no influence on any specific outcome of the trial. The authors thank the participating patients and therapists at RIAGG, Maastricht.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Association for the Advancement of Psychotherapy Inc.. All rights reserved.
Funding
Send correspondence to Dr. Lemmens (lotte.lemmens@maastrichtuniversity. nl). Portions of this work have been presented at scientific conferences, in lectures and workshops, and at meetings for clinicians between 2012 and 2019. For more information, please contact the corresponding author. This trial was funded by the Dutch-Flemish Research Institute of Experimental Psychopathology and by the Academic Community Mental Health Centre (RIAGG), Maastricht. The funding organizations had no influence on any specific outcome of the trial. The authors thank the participating patients and therapists at RIAGG, Maastricht.