PITTSBURGH, May 7 -- For women with depression who achieved remission with interpersonal psychotherapy, a monthly therapy booster prevented recurrence for 74% of patients over two years, researchers reported.
On the other hand, for patients who required drug therapy coupled with psychotherapy to achieve remission, psychotherapy alone for the few patients who remained in the study was significantly less effective, Ellen Frank, Ph.D., of the University of Pittsburgh, and colleagues, reported online in the May issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry.
Acute interpersonal psychotherapy focuses on grief, role transitions, role disputes, and interpersonal deficits. Maintenance therapy focuses on helping the patient assume responsibility for preventing future depressive episodes, and reinforcing interpersonal coping skills, while still focusing on the four traditional problem areas, the researchers said.
The randomized trial included 233 women, ages 20 to 60, with recurrent unipolar depression who were treated in an outpatient research clinic from September 1992 to April 1999.
