MedWire News: Among depressed mothers with children receiving psychiatric treatment, interpersonal psychotherapy reduces symptoms and improves functioning, which precedes improvements in their children, conclude US researchers.
Untreated depression in the mothers of children with psychiatric illness leads to suffering for the mothers and a reduced likelihood of improvement in their child's psychiatric illness, explain Holly Swartz, from Western Psychiatric Institute and Clinic in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and colleagues.
To examine the efficacy of interpersonal psychotherapy, the team randomly assigned 47 mothers with depression, whose school-age children were receiving psychiatric treatment, to receive interpersonal psychotherapy for depressed mothers (IPT-MOMS) or usual treatment.
IPT-MOMS consisted of nine sessions based on standard interpersonal psychotherapy for depression, with additional modifications to help depressed mothers engage in treatment. The participants were assessed at baseline, and again after 3 and 9 months of follow-up using a series of measures.
The average age of the women assigned to IPT-MOMS was 41.6 years, while that of women given standard treatment was 44.2 years. The average age of the child in each group was 13.7 years and 13.9 years, respectively.
At both the 3-month and 9-month follow-ups, women treated with IPT-MOMS had significantly lower levels of depression on the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HAM-D), and higher Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) scores than women given usual treatment Their average scores for the HAM-D were 6.4 versus 10.8 and 5.6 versus 11.1, respectively, and 77.8 versus 70.1 and 78.1 versus 69.2, respectively, on GAF.
In addition, the results, published in the American Journal of Psychiatry, show that the children of mothers assigned to receive IPT-MOMS had significantly lower levels of depression than those of mothers given usual care at 9-month follow-up on both the Children's Depression Inventory and the Columbia Impairment Scale.
Further analysis revealed a significant interaction between percent change in maternal depression scores and treatment assignment for Children's Depression Inventory scores, indicating that changes in maternal depression may mediate the effect of treatment assignment on child depression over time.
The team writes: "Those assigned to IPT-MOMS stayed in treatment, achieved substantial clinical gains within a relatively short time, and stayed well over an additional 6 months. Their offspring also seemed to benefit from the mothers' treatment."
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