The Impact of Perceived Interpersonal Functioning on Treatment forAdolescent Depression: IPT-A Versus Treatment as Usual inSchool-Based Health Clinics

摘要

Aspects of depressed adolescents' perceived interpersonal functioning were examined as moder-ators of response to treatment among adolescents treated with interpersonal psychotherapy for depressedadolescents (IPT-A; Mufson, Dorta, Moreau, & Weissman, 2004) or treatment as usual (TAU) in school-basedhealth clinics. Method: Sixty-three adolescents (12-18 years of age) participated in a clinical trial examiningthe effectiveness of IFT-A (Mufson, Dorta, Wickramaratne, et al., 2004). The sample was 84.1% female and15.9% male (mean age = 14.67 years). Adolescents were 74.6% Latino, 14.3% African American, 1.6%Asian American, and 9.5% other. They came primarily from low-income families. Adolescents wererandomly assigned to receive IFT-A or TAU delivered by school-based mental health clinicians. Assessments,completed at baseline and at Weeks 4, 8, and 12 (or at early termination), included the Hamilton Rating Scalefor Depression (Hamilton, 1967), the Conflict Behavior Questionnaire (Robin & Foster, 1989), and the SocialAdjustment Scale–Self-Report (Weissman & Bothwell, 1976). Results: Multilevel modeling indicated thattreatment condition interacted with adolescents' baseline reports of conflict with their mothers and socialdysfunction with friends to predict the trajectory of adolescents' depressive symptoms over the course oftreatment, controlling for baseline levels of depression. The benefits of IPT-A over TAU were particularlystrong for the adolescents who reported high levels of conflict with their mothers and social dysfunction withfriends. Conclusions: Replication with larger samples would suggest that IPT-A may be particularly helpfulfor depressed adolescents who are reporting high levels of conflict with their mothers or interpersonaldifficulties with friends.