Interpersonal psychotherapy for depressed adolescents: a one-year naturalistic follow-up study.

OBJECTIVE: To report on a 1-year naturalistic follow-up study of 14 depressed adolescents who were treated for 3 months with interpersonal psychotherapy adapted for depressed adolescents (IPT-A).

METHOD: The 14 depressed adolescents were contacted approximately 1 year after completion of 3 months of IPT-A to participate in an evaluation of depressive symptomatology, social functioning, and life events. Both self-report and clinician-rated measures were administered.

RESULTS: Ten adolescents participated in the follow-up evaluation. Only one of them met criteria for an affective disorder. The majority of subjects reported few depressive symptoms and had maintained their improvements in social functioning since completion of treatment for depression. The life events survey suggested that the subjects had experienced a significant number of negative life events during their lifetime. There were no reported hospitalizations, pregnancies, or suicide attempts since completion of treatment, and all were attending school regularly.

CONCLUSIONS: Despite the limitations of a naturalistic follow-up and the small sample size, the results suggest that the adolescents maintained their state of recovery from depression until 1 year after completing treatment with IPT-A.