Efficacy of interpersonal psychotherapy for postpartum depression

Background: Postpartum depression causes women great suffering and has nega tive consequences for their social relationships and for the development of their infants, Research is needed to evaluate the efficacy of psychotherap y for postpartum depression. Methods: A total of 120 postpartum women meeting DSM-TV criteria for major depression were recruited from the community and randomly assigned to 12 we eks of interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) or to a waiting list condition (WL C) control group. Subjects completed interview and self-report assessments of depressive symptoms and social adjustment every 4 weeks. Results: Ninety-nine of the 120 patients completed the protocol. Hamilton R aring Scale for Depression (HRSD) scores of women receiving IPT declined fr om 19.4 to 8.3, a significantly greater decrease than occurred in the WLC g roup (19.8 to 16.8). The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) scores of women wh o received IPT declined from 23.6 to 10.6 over 12 weeks, a significantly gr eater decrease than occurred in the WLC group (23.0 to 19.2). A significant ly greater proportion of women who received IPT recovered from their depres sive episode based on HRSD scores of 6 or lower (37.5%) and BDI scores of 9 or lower (43.8%) compared with women in the WLC group (13.7% and 13.7%, re spectively). Women receiving IPT also had significant improvement on the Po stpartum Adjustment Questionnaire and the Social Adjustment Scale-Self-Repo rt relative to women in the WLC group. Conclusions: These findings suggest that IPT is an efficacious treatment fo r postpartum depression. Interpersonal psychotherapy reduced depressive sym ptoms and improved social adjustment, and represents an alternative to phar maco therapy, particularly for women who are breastfeeding.