Psychology Commons^™

Patient Interpersonal And Cognitive Changes In Relation To Outcome In Interpersonal Psychotherapy For Depression, Samantha L. Bernecker

Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014

Despite evidence for the efficacy of interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) for depression, there remains little understanding of its specific change-promoting ingredients. This study aimed to establish candidate change mechanisms by identifying whether patients’ interpersonal (theory-specific) and cognitive (theory-nonspecific) characteristics change in an adaptive direction during IPT, and whether such changes differentially relate to depression reduction and improvement in global functioning. The four interpersonal variables and one cognitive variable measured all changed significantly in an adaptive direction, with medium to large effect sizes. Reduced interpersonal problems were marginally associated with self-reported depression reduction (β = 2.846, p = .062), and greater …