Can interpersonal psychotherapy be delivered by a community agency?

Objectives: There are limited options for depressed patients to have access to evidence-based psychotherapies in the community. This pilot study explored the feasibility of delivering interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) to clients in a community support agency.

Method: A total of 18 clients with depression completed at least eight sessions of IPT (range 8-13) and 17 completed a range of pre- and post-treatment measures.

Results: Clients had a high level of depression and were functioning poorly. All found the delivery of IPT in the community useful and would recommend therapy to others. There was a significant reduction in self-report and clinician-rated depression, and improvement in social functioning.

Conclusions: This study supports the notion that therapy can be delivered by appropriately trained non-mental-health clinicians in the community with good effect and adds to the range of options for delivery of psychiatric care.