Working through the blues: A meta-analysis on Interpersonal Psychotherapy for depressed adolescents (IPT-A)

Previous research has indicated that Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) is generally effective for ameliorating symptoms for adults suffering from depression. Indeed, this has been demonstrated through numerous clinical and open trials, and further confirmed on a larger degree through several meta-analyses. However, no such comprehensive reviews have been conducted exclusively with adolescents, a population for which interpersonal relationships holds immense developmental importance. Therefore, a meta-analysis of the effectiveness of IPT-A, the version of IPT modified to specifically address depression in adolescents, was conducted in the present review. A total of ten studies yielding 766 participants were included in the present meta-analysis and analyzed using a standardized mean gain (SMG) effect size. The results indicate that IPT-A was significantly effective at reducing depressive symptoms in adolescents and significantly more effective than control or treatment-as-usual groups in treating depression in adolescents. IPT-A yielded an overall effect size (Hedges g) of 1.19, while the aggregate effect size for control/placebo groups was 0.58. Overall, the results of this review suggest that IPT-A holds similar promise for improving adolescent depression as the original version does for adults.