Evidence map›Paper›PMID 24100081›Full record

ReviewClinical psychology review2013

Mechanisms of change in interpersonal therapy (IPT).

Joshua D Lipsitz, John C Markowitz

Registry-linked trialAbstract readReview
PubMed Full text at PMC Publisher
In one paragraph

Review in Clinical psychology review, 2013. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to trial NCT07627243 (Ultra-Brief Crisis IPT-A Based Intervention for Suicidal Children and Adolescents), which is not on this map. Cited by 73 papers, 5 of them syntheses that pooled it.

0numbers the graph read from it
0cells of the map it votes in
73citing papers in PubMed, 5 pooled it
–field-weighted citation impact
1 · What the graph read from it

What it found

Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.

The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.

2 · The registry

The trial behind it

Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.

NCT07627243 nanot yet recruitingnot on this mapstarted 2026, after this paper: background citation

Ultra-Brief Crisis IPT-A Based Intervention for Suicidal Children and Adolescents (IPT-A-SCI): Understanding Mechanisms of Change

TypeinterventionalSponsorTel Aviv UniversityRan2026 to 2028Enrolled120ConditionsSuicidal Ideation, Suicidal BehaviorArmsIPT-A-SCI
3 · Its place in the literature

Who cites it

73 citing papers in PubMed, 5 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.

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  17. Targeting mechanisms of change as a path to precision psychotherapy for community settings.Psychotherapy research : journal of the Society for Psychotherapy Research · 2026
    Article
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  19. Do posttreatment increases in social recovery capital mediate the relationship between lower internalizing symptoms and less substance use?Psychology of addictive behaviors : journal of the Society of Psychologists in Addictive Behaviors · 2026
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13 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.

4 · The record

Corrections and comments

PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.

5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

2 authors.

Joshua D LipsitzDepartment of Psychology, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Marcus Family Campus, Beer-Sheva, Israel; Department of Psychiatry, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, NY, United States. Electronic address: joshual@bgu.ac.il.
John C Markowitz

Funding

Psychotherapies for Chronic Posttraumatic Stress DisorderR01MH079078 · NIMH · NEW YORK STATE PSYCHIATRIC INSTITUTE DBA RESEARCH FOUNDATION FOR MENTAL HYGIENE, INC · PI MARKOWITZ, JOHN C · 2008 to 2012
$3.1M
NIMH NIH HHS R01 MH079078
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

Although interpersonal therapy (IPT) has demonstrated efficacy for mood and other disorders, little is known about how IPT works. We present interpersonal change mechanisms that we hypothesize account for symptom change in IPT. Integrating relational theory and insights based on research findings regarding stress, social support, and illness, IPT highlights contextual factors thought to precipitate and maintain psychiatric disorders. It frames therapy around a central interpersonal problem in the patient's life, a current crisis or relational predicament that is disrupting social support and increasing interpersonal stress. By mobilizing and working collaboratively with the patient to resolve this problem, IPT seeks to activate several interpersonal change mechanisms. These include: 1) enhancing social support, 2) decreasing interpersonal stress, 3) facilitating emotional processing, and 4) improving interpersonal skills. We hope that articulating these mechanisms will help therapists to formulate cases and better maintain focus within an IPT framework. Here we propose interpersonal mechanisms that might explain how IPT's interpersonal focus leads to symptom change. Future work needs to specify and test candidate mediators in clinical trials. We anticipate that pursuing this more systematic strategy will lead to important refinements and improvements in IPT and enhance its application in a range of clinical populations.

Indexed as

Interpersonal RelationsSocial SupportHumansMood DisordersPsychotherapyTreatment OutcomeInterpersonalInterpersonal therapyIPTMechanismsMediatorsPsychotherapy

Identifiers

PMID24100081
PMCPMC4109031

What OpenQuestion holds

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Registered trials

Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.