Is interpersonal counselling (IPC) sufficient treatment for depression in primary care patients? A pilot study comparing IPC and interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT)

Abstract Background Psychotherapeutic treatment is underused in primary care, where even short-term psychotherapy can be perceived as too lengthy and labour-intensive. We tested here for the first time the preliminary efficacy of seven sessions of interpersonal counselling (IPC) by comparison with sixteen sessions of interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) in regular clinical settings. Methods Patients seeking treatment for the first time who met the DSM-IV criteria for major depressive disorder (MDD, mild/moderate) were randomized to either IPC ( n =20) or IPT ( n =20). The efficacy of the treatments was assessed using the 34-item Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation (CORE-OM) scale and the B…

Consumer Satisfaction with Outpatient Mental Health Care: Impact of an Organizational Change in Mental Health Center Function from Hospital District to Basic Health Care

In Finland the administrative responsibility for outpatient psychiatric care has in part been reorganized from specialized psychiatric treatment organizations to health centers. This change has been encouraged by economic pressures, but data about its impact on the quality of treatment and patient satisfaction are limited. We carried out a follow-up study by using the UKU Consumer Satisfaction Rating Scale (UKU-CONSAT) and qualitative interviews to estimate consumer satisfaction with the psychiatric outpatient care just before and 1 year after such a change. The results suggest that dissatisfaction may emerge if too little attention is paid to the longevity of the treatment relationships an…

Predicting response to interpersonal counselling (IPC) from case formulation : a systematic comparison between recovered and unchanged depressive cases

We sought to explore how the process between the counsellor and patient for arriving at a case formulation may predict the outcome of manualized interpersonal counselling (IPC) for depression in primary care. Qualitative content analysis and applied conversation analysis (CA) were used to achieve depth in the understanding of case formulation process among five patients who recovered and five who were unchanged according to quantitative post-treatment change rates derived from Clinical Outcomes in Routine Evaluation– Outcome Measure (CORE-OM). Interaction in the case formulations for the recovered group was generally characterized by a joint construction effort between the counsellor and th…

Psykiatriset hoitosuhdekeskustelut ja perustason psykoterapiaopetus