En 2030, la dépression occupera la première cause mondiale de morbidité selon l’Organisation mondiale de la santé. Le passage à l’acte suicidaire en est la complication la plus redoutée. Chez l’adolescent, une place croissante est accordée aux traitements non médicamenteux, et en particulier aux psychothérapies. Peu connue en France, malgré d’excellentes évaluations internationales, la thérapie interpersonnelle est une psychothérapie brève, structurée, en 12 à 16 séances à un rythme hebdomadaire, centrée sur un domaine interpersonnel problématique actuel. Quatre ont été montrés comme significativement corrélés à l’émergence de la dépression : le deuil, la transition de rôle, les conflits et le déficit interpersonnel. Elle a fait les preuves de son efficacité dans le traitement aigu ambulatoire de la dépression de l’adulte et de l’adolescent, et plusieurs projets de recherche ont testé sa validité, avec plus ou moins de réussite, dans d’autres contextes, d’autres groupes de sujets, et dans d’autres pathologies psychiatriques. Chez l’adolescent, elle présente un intérêt indéniable, mais sa forme originale doit être adaptée aux particularités propres à cette population. Cet article expose des généralités sur la thérapie interpersonnelle, puis les éléments propres à sa réalisation avec des adolescents dépressifs.

Depression disorder may become the first cause of morbidity by 2030, according to the World Health Organization. It is actually one of the main causes of disease and handicap in children aged from 10 to 19. The major risk is suicide, whose prevalence is estimated, in France, around 6.7 for 100,000, which is probably underestimated. At present, the discussions about prescription of antidepressants in an adolescent's depression remain intense which is why psychotherapy becomes the first choice of treatment. We propose here to present one of them, Interpersonal PsychoTherapy (IPT), which remains largely unknown in France, and its adaptations in the adolescent population.

IPT is a brief psychotherapy, structured in twelve to sixteen sessions, which was created by Klerman and Weissman in the seventies inspired by the biopsychosocial model of Meyer, interpersonal theory of Sullivan, and attachment theory of Bowlby. It is divided into three parts: the initial phase, the intermediate phase, and the termination phase.

IPT was adapted for adolescents by Mufson in 1993, but a few modifications must be considered. Parental implication is the first. Indeed, parents, rather than the adolescent, often ask for the consultation; but it is the latter who benefits from the therapy. Parents may be met at some point in the therapy, for example between each phase and at the end. The initial phase is very close for the adolescent as for the adult; but the therapist must be careful about employing the “sick role” which can be used by the adolescent to avoid school, and as a consequence, to exacerbate the interpersonal deficit. The intermediate phase focuses on one of the four interpersonal issues: complicated bereavement, role transition, interpersonal role disputes, and interpersonal deficit. Complicated bereavement may become problematic when prolonged or when the adolescent had complicated relations with the deceased. The therapist essentially works on emotion verbalization. The role of transition is very common during adolescence: children become adults, they pass from high school to college, or their parents get divorced, etc. The patient and the therapist work on giving up the old role with its emotional expression (guilt, anger, and loss), and acquiring new skills, and identifying positive aspects of the new role. Interpersonal role disputes are common during adolescence, with parents or teachers for example. To determine a treatment plan, the therapist may first determine the stage of the role dispute, among impasse, renegotiation, or dissolution, and then work on the communication mode of the patient. At the least, the interpersonal deficit may be the most difficult area to work on because of the risk of psychiatric comorbidity. The therapist must be especially careful about anxious disorder which may complicate the psychotherapy and for which IPT is not the best therapy. The termination phase focuses on the new skills and abilities and works on the future without therapy. IPT is one of the psychotherapies recommended in the treatment of depression disorder in the international recommendations. But in France, all psychotherapies are considered equally. This may be a consensual approach, but the authors wonder if it is the best, especially to motivate research in the psychotherapy field.

Finally, IPT has been developed in other indications in the past years, and many others are presently in research projects: depression during pregnancy, prevention of depression relapse, eating disorders, attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder, self-harm for example.

Its validity, simplicity and efficacy should stimulate psychiatrists and residents to train themselves to IPT.