The use of interpersonal psychotherapy for non-suicidal self-injury and eating disorders

Abstract

Interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) is an effective treatment for depressive disorder. Over the last two decades, IPT has been modified to treat different mental health problems, including eating disorders. When working with patients presenting with eating disorder psychopathology, the eating disorder behaviour is used as a marker of "abnormality" that is linked lo the person's interpersonal difficulty. Non-suicidal self-injury behaviour (NSSI) within the eating disorder individual can be treated in the same way as the eating disorder behaviour. Within IPT, the therapist firstly aims to identify the interpersonal focus associated with the unhealthy behaviour, in order to work through this focus to reduce the behaviour. This chapter describes the modified version of IPT for eating disorders. It also makes suggestions how IPT may be used in a population of patients with eating disorders and NSSI, by including NSSI in addition to eating disorder behaviour as a marker of distress. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2016 APA, all rights reserved) (Source: chapter)