Michael W. O'Hara, Ph.D., and colleagues from the University of Iowa in Iowa City recruited 120 postpartum women who met the DSM-IV criteria for major depression to participate in a study evaluating the effectiveness of interpersonal psychotherapy for postpartum depression.

Among the 99 patients who completed the study, women who received interpersonal psychotherapy (12-hour-long sessions with a therapist) showed greater improvement in their scores on two depression rating scales than the women in the control group who were wait-listed from therapy. A significantly greater proportion of women who received IPT recovered from their depressive episode based on Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression scores of six or lower (37.5 percent) and Beck Depression Inventory scores of nine or lower (43.8 percent) compared with women in the waiting list condition control group (13.7 percent and 13.7 percent, respectively).

The authors recommend that women with postpartum depression be treated as quickly as possible. They suggest that clinicians should feel confident that interpersonal psychotherapy is an effective and acceptable treatment for postpartum depression and can be offered to women who wish to avoid taking psychotropic medications when they are breastfeeding.