Interpersonal Psychotherapy for Youth With Severe Mood Dysregulation

This research is being done to learn more about how to help teenagers with a sad or angry mood, and emotional responses out of proportion to what would be expected in a situation. Together these symptoms are called Severe Mood Dysregulation (SMD), a research diagnosis, or disruptive mood dysregulation disorder (DMDD), a newer clinical diagnosis. Currently, there is no standard treatment for teens that have SMD/DMDD. These teens usually receive medication and some type of talk therapy. This research is being done to compare two types of talk therapy to see which is most effective in helping teens with SMD/DMDD. Investigators will compare treatment as usual (TAU) with Interpersonal Psychotherapy for Youth with Mood and Behavior Dysregulation (IPT-MBD). Investigators do not know if TAU and IPT-MBD work just as well, or if one is better than the other. When this study is over, investigators hope there will be a better idea of how to study treatments for teens with SMD/DMDD. For those participants who receive IPT-MBD, are prescribed an antipsychotic, and have significant improvement in symptoms, investigators will gradually taper the antipsychotic dose.