ABSTRACT
There has been much outcome research on interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) but little investigation of its components. This study assessed interrater reliability of IPT therapists in identifying interpersonal problem areas and treatment foci from audiotapes of initial treatment sessions. Three IPT research psychotherapists assessed up to 18 audiotapes of dysthymic patients, using the Interpersonal Problem Area Rating Scale. Cohen's kappa was used to examine concordance between raters. Kappas for presence or absence of each of the four IPT problem areas were 0.87 (grief), 0.58 (role dispute), 1.0 (role transition), and 0.48 (interpersonal deficits). Kappa for agreement on a clinical focus was 0.82. IPT therapists agreed closely in rating problem areas and potential treatment foci, providing empirical support for potential therapist consistency in this treatment approach.
Subject(s)
Dysthymic Disorder/therapy , Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care/statistics & numerical data , Professional-Patient Relations , Psychotherapy , Adult , Dysthymic Disorder/psychology , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Observer Variation , Psychometrics , Psychotherapy/methodsABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: The authors present preliminary data from two treatment modalities of a randomized clinical trial in which they compared 16-week interventions of interpersonal psychotherapy to supportive psychotherapy. METHOD: HIV-positive patients who were not acutely medically ill and had scores of 15 or higher on the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale were randomly assigned to one of four treatment modalities. They were assessed by the Hamilton scale and Beck Depression Inventory at 8 and 16 weeks. Most subjects who underwent either interpersonal psychotherapy (N = 16) or supportive psychotherapy (N = 16) were male, gay or bisexual, white, and college educated. RESULTS: Results of last-observation-carried-forward and completer analyses showed that scores on the Hamilton scale and Beck Depression Inventory decreased significantly for both treatments. Differential improvement for interpersonal psychotherapy appeared by midtreatment (week 8) and persisted at termination. CONCLUSIONS: This is the first controlled study of individual psychotherapies for depressed HIV-positive patients. Results suggest that a specific antidepressant psychotherapy, interpersonal psychotherapy, has advantages over a supportive therapy.
