Global advances in interpersonal psychotherapy research: highlights from the biennial meeting of the International Society for Interpersonal Psychotherapy

The third biennial conference of the International Society for Interpersonal Psychotherapy (ISIPT) was held in March 2009 in New York, New York. The theme of this year’s conference was ‘‘Global Updates,’’ and international experts provided updates on interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) treatment, training, and research in Europe, Africa, Asia, Australasia, and the Americas. It was the largest gathering of IPTclinicians, researchers, educators, and trainees to date, reflecting the IPTcommunity’s place at the forefront of efforts to develop and disseminate evidence-based psychotherapy for diverse populations. ISIPTwas formed in 2000 with the goal of promoting the dissemination of IPT, establishing IPT training and accreditation pathways, and promoting international cooperation in IPT treatment, research, and training. Below are some of the highlights of this year’s conference. Vikram Patel, M.D., Ph.D. a Welcome Trust Senior Clinical Research Fellow at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine who is based in Goa, India, delivered a keynote address entitled, ‘‘The process of scaling up services for mental disorders in developing countries. ’’ His talk focused on the 2007 Lancet Series on Global Mental Health that was created to emphasize the growing need to target mental health problems and increase mental health service coverage around the world, particularly in low and middle-income countries. He noted that prior to the Lancet series, mental health had not been included as a major global health initiative since a World Health Report in 2001. While there is ample evidence regarding efficacious treatments for many psychiatric disorders, these disorders are often undetected in primary care settings. If they are identified, psychosocial treatments are rarely available, particularly those known to be effective. One major barrier to addressing global psychiatric needs is the low number of psychiatrists and psychologists within the public sector and outside of urban areas. Reorganizing mental health systems is a critical step in increasing world-wide psychiatric services, and face-to-face contact will not be sufficient in order to close gaps in treatment delivery. The concept of ‘‘task-shifting,’’ or rationally redistributing some intervention activities to less specialized professionals (e.g., community health workers), was recommended as a means of sustaining interventions. The Lancet series has led to international advocacy, including endorsements from the World Federation of Mental Health and the World Health Organization, a call to action from the United Nations secretary, and mental health reforms and funding in several lowand middle-income countries. In addition, Dr. Patel launched the ‘‘Movement for Global Mental Health’’ on October 10, 2008, which has become ‘‘World Mental Health Day’’ (for more information, see www.globalmentalhealth.org). Finally, Dr. Patel emphasized the need for political will and solidarity from public health and mental health professionals in the field in order to begin to translate evidence into action. Following Dr. Patel’s address, several IPT researchers presented findings from their research adapting, implementing, and disseminating IPT to improve mental health in countries around the world. Lincoln Ndogoni, M.A. from the University of Nairobi and World Vision International, spoke about the use of local non-mental health staff in the provision of Interpersonal Psychotherapy for Groups (IPT-G) in low resource settings in Kenya. He and his colleagues developed culturally appropriate and relevant depression and functioning measures, and conducted an open trial of IPT-G to assess the feasibility and preliminary effectiveness of delivering IPT-G in Kenya. Fifteen locally trained nonmental health staff provided 16–20 weeks of 1–2 hr IPT-G sessions to 150 participants presenting with ‘‘kuhinyiririka meciria’’ (‘‘squeezed brain’’). At the end of the treatment, participants demonstrated significant reductions in depression severity, and only 3% of group members met criteria for depression. They also reported