Maintenance Interpersonal Psychotherapy for Sustaining Remission of Depression

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.