Augmenting Interpersonal Therapy Early May Speed Improvement in Youth With Depression

Psychiatrists who treat adolescents with depression with interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT-A) should consider augmenting the treatment if there is no significant response to therapy within four weeks, suggests a smallstudy published in theJournal of American Academy of Child& Adolescent Psychiatry.“Waiting too long to decide whether to change treatment for an insufficient responder could mean prolonged experience of depressive symptoms and associated functional impairments,” wrote Meredith Gunlicks-Stoessel, Ph.D., of the University of Minnesota and colleagues. “On the other hand, augme nting treatment too soon might mean adding treatments that could increase risk of side effects or other burdens before giving the initial treatment sufficient time to work.”For the study, Gunlicks-Stoessel and colleagues tracked 40 adolescents aged 12 to 17 with depression receiving 12 IPT-A sessions over a 16-week period. The participants were randomly assigned to receive a clinical evaluation after either four weeks or eight weeks, at which point treatment could be augmented if needed. Adolescents who showed an insufficient response to IPT-A (defined as less than a 20% reduction in depression symptom scores after four weeks or less than 40% reduction in depression symptom scores after eight weeks) were randomly assigned to four additional IPT-A sessions or daily fluoxetine (10 mg to 40 mg).The authors found that the adolescents who received a clinical evaluation after four weeks h...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: clinical decision depression depression in adolescents fluoxetine interpersonal therapy Meredith Gunlicks-Stoessel psychotherapy treatment augmentation Source Type: research