Maintenance Interpersonal Psychotherapy for Sustaining Remission of Depression

University of Pittsburgh

Status

Completed

Conditions

Depression

Treatments

Drug: Fluoxetine

Behavioral: Interpersonal Psychotherapy

Study type

Interventional

Funder types

Other

Identifiers

NCT00227981

DSIR 950309-9905

R01MH049115

Details and patient eligibility

About

This study will evaluate the effectiveness of maintenance interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) in preventing relapse of depression in women who have required combined psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy treatment to obtain a remission of depression symptoms.

Full description

Depression is a serious medical illness that can recur more than once in a person's lifetime. Effective treatment methods are needed to maintain a state of remission in people who have had prior episodes of depression. IPT is a brief and highly structured type of psychotherapy that addresses interpersonal issues associated with depression. Previous studies have shown that it is an effective method for treating depression. This study will evaluate the effectiveness of maintenance ITP in preventing relapse of depression in women who have required combined psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy treatment to obtain remission of depressive symptoms.

Participants in this open label study will be recruited from a previous study, "Maintenance Psychotherapy in Recurrent Depression: Study I." In this study participants will initially receive weekly sessions of IPT as well as medication treatment with fluoxetine. Any participants who do not reach remission of depressive symptoms after 6 weeks will be given other standard treatments for depression. Once remission of depressive symptoms is reached, participants will continue receiving weekly IPT and fluoxetine treatment for 20 weeks. After 20 weeks, fluoxetine treatment will be discontinued, and all participants will receive IPT alone for 6 weeks before entering the maintenance phase of the study. Upon entrance into this phase, participants will be randomly assigned to receive IPT weekly, biweekly, or monthly for 18 months. Functioning and depressive symptoms will be assessed at Month 24.

Sex

Female

Ages

20 to 60 years old

Volunteers

No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

Met all entry criteria for the parent study, "Maintenance Psychotherapy in Recurrent Depression, Study I"
Began IPT as outlined in the parent study
Demostrated compliance with IPT sessions during the parent study
Exhibits less than a 50% reduction in score on the Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression after 12 weeks of psychotherapy or fails to meet stabilization criteria after 24 weeks of psychotherapy during the parent study

Exclusion criteria