Interpersonal Psychotherapy for Adolescents and Young Adults

The purpose of the project is to study the effectiveness of Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) for adolescents with depression. Specific aims are to analyze the effects, change mechanisms, predictors, and implementation of IPT for youth. In this four-year project we will include 60 patients with depression. Outcome will be studied using a quasi-experimental multiple-baseline design. Change mechanisms will be studied in the form of mentalizing, emotion regulation, social support, and working alliance session-by-session, and with post-treatment qualitative interviews about the participants' experiences of change. Predictors of effectiveness of IPT for adolescents will be explored by measuring severity of symptoms, anxiety symptoms, presence and severity of parent-child conflicts, quality of interpersonal relationships, experiences of bullying, and school functioning. The implementation process of IPT for youth will be studied through interviews with adolescents, parents, therapists, co-workers, and local managers.

The study is conducted within child and adolescent psychiatric services in Norrköping using a practice-oriented research strategy which emphasizes close collaboration with clinicians. The project is a collaboration between researchers at Linnaeus University and Linköping University, and clinicians at BUP Norrköping.