Overview
Interpersonal Psychotherapy for Dysthymic Disorder is the first manual to examine the use of psychotherapy for dysthymic disorder, or chronic depression. This useful, innovative guide describes how to adapt interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) -- a proven, time-limited therapy that has benefited patients who have other mood disorders and psychiatric syndromes -- to treat dysthymic disorder. After discussing the characteristics of dysthymic disorder, the basic principles of IPT, and the available treatment data, this volume offers clear, coherent treatment strategies for working with this potentially difficult, yet treatable, disorder. A useful adjunct to training and supervision by certified clinicians, this book contains numerous case examples that vividly illustrate how to use this treatment approach. This text also includes an appendix with patient education materials, the IPT Problem Area Rating Scale (IPARS), and the IPT Outcome Scale.
By using this text, therapists can improve their patients' life functioning and provide a more comprehensive and effective treatment.
American Psychiatric Publishing
The book contains no figures.
Editorials
From The Critics
Reviewer: Marcella McGuire, MS, RN, CSADC(Rush University Medical Center)Description: This book about dysthymic disorder combines case studies with an overview of interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) modified for patients with dysthymic disorder.
Purpose: The stated purpose is to promote better understanding of a misunderstood syndrome, dysthymic disorder, and to delineate approaches to its treatment, particularly the adaptation of IPT.
Audience: This is a book for mental health professionals, but is written at a more basic level, for psychiatric residents and psychology students at best.
Features: While the book is short in length, greater attention to editing and presentation of content was needed. Numerous changes in format make it more difficult to read.
Assessment: This book appears to be a summary of previously published work which is readily available in journals. The author and his colleagues are well established clinicians and researchers in the field of depression. It does not seem necessary to continually repeat the message already available, and learning how to use IPT for dysthymic patients cannot be achieved by reading a book, not even this book.
Marcella McGuire
This book about dysthymic disorder combines case studies with an overview of interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) modified for patients with dysthymic disorder. The stated purpose is to promote better understanding of a misunderstood syndrome, dysthymic disorder, and to delineate approaches to its treatment, particularly the adaptation of IPT. This is a book for mental health professionals, but is written at a more basic level, for psychiatric residents and psychology students at best. While the book is short in length, greater attention to editing and presentation of content was needed. Numerous changes in format make it more difficult to read. This book appears to be a summary of previously published work which is readily available in journals. The author and his colleagues are well established clinicians and researchers in the field of depression. It does not seem necessary to continually repeat the message already available, and learning how to use IPT for dysthymic patients cannot be achieved by reading a book, not even this book.Booknews
This book for mental health professionals was written to be read in conjunction with the treatment manual developed at Cornell for the conduct of an interpersonal psychotherapy treatment (IPT) study of dysthymic disorder (Klerman and colleagues, 1984). Discusses the symptoms of the disorder (lingering chronic depression), the basic principles of IPT, available treatment data, and more extensively, treatment strategies. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.American Journal of Psychiatry
This excellent book will urge an expanded repertoire on the experienced psychiatrist and provide trainees and less experienced therapists with an introduction to interpersonal therapy.
Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic
[T]his book provides a useful addition to the armamentarium of any psychotherapist dealing with this historically difficult-to-treat disorder. This is particularly important in this era of managed care, which places such a heavy emphasis on clear-cut goals for time-limited treatments.
2 Stars from Doody