Adapting Interpersonal Psychotherapy for Older Adults at Risk for Suicide: Preliminary Findings

We report preliminary findings of the first ever study testing a 16-week course of Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) modified for older outpatients at elevated risk for suicide. Participants were referred from inpatient and outpatient medicine and mental health services. Psychotherapy sessions took place in a therapist's office in a teaching hospital. Twelve adults 60 years or older (M=70.5, SD=6.1) with current thoughts of suicide (suicide ideation) or a wish to die (death ideation) or with recent self-injurious behavior were recruited into weekly sessions of IPT; one was subsequently excluded due to severe cognitive impairment. Participants completed measures of suicide ideation, death ideation, and depressive symptom severity at pre-treatment, mid-treatment, post-treatment, and at 3-month follow-up periods, and measures of therapeutic process variables. Preliminary findings of this uncontrolled pre-post-treatment study support the feasibility of recruiting and retaining older adults at-risk for suicide into psychotherapy research and suggest that adapted IPT is tolerable and safe. Findings indicate a substantial reduction in participant suicide ideation, death ideation, and depressive symptoms; controlled trials are needed to further evaluate these findings. We discuss implications for clinical care with at-risk older adults.