Interpersonal psychotherapy for adolescent depression: description of modification and preliminary application.

Interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) is a brief treatment developed and tested specifically for depressed adults. This paper describes a modification for use with depressed adolescents (IPT-A) that will be tested in a controlled clinical trial. A description of IPT, its efficacy in adults, a rationale for developing IPT-A, and preliminary experience with depressed adolescents treated with IPT-A are presented. Data available on the treatment of depressed adolescents using drugs and/or psychotherapy is more than a decade behind that of adults. The specification and testing of psychotherapy will accelerate a rational, scientific basis for their treatment.