11/04/2017
Depression is a leading cause of disability worldwide. In 2005, the World Health Organization (WHO) powerfully asserted that there is “no health without mental health.” In 2008, the WHO developed the mental health Gap Action Program (mhGAP) to focus services on a limited number of mental, neurological, and substance use disorders, especially in low- and middle-income countries. Naming depression as one of its targeted illnesses, the mhGAP developed an intervention guide that included pharmacologic and nonpharmacologic first-line treatment options for depression, including interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT). IPT, first developed in the 1970s by Gerald Klerman, Myrna Weissman, and colleagues, has subsequently been validated for the treatment of depression through numerous studies throughout the developed and developing world and has been adapted for both individual and group sessions.
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