Interpersonal Psychotherapy for Suicidal Risk: A Narrative Review of Randomized Controlled Trials

This narrative review evaluates the effectiveness of interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) among individuals at risk of suicide, with a focus on the quality of randomized controlled studies.

The available literature was systematically searched on PubMed, the Cochrane Library, Hinari-Research4Life, and ResearchGate to identify RCTs in which participants at risk of suicide received IPT compared to other forms of treatment. Extracted study data were organized into a table of evidence using Microsoft Excel and Word. The Risk of Bias 2 Excel tool was used to evaluate the possibility of bias. Out of 158 identified studies, six met the inclusion criteria for review and analysis, encompassing 1,275 participants, of whom 53.1% were randomized to IPT conditions. Among these studies, two demonstrated that IPT was effective in significantly reducing suicidal ideation and behaviors over time compared to treatment-as-usual or waitlist conditions. However, most studies did not report clinically significant outcomes, such as risk ratios, effect sizes, and confidence intervals (CIs) with p values. A significant risk of bias was observed across the majority of studies, particularly in randomization (83.30%), deviation from the intended intervention (66.70%), missing outcomes (66.70%), measurement of outcomes (66.70%), and selection of the reported results (100%), with an overall high risk of bias across all assessed domains.

The effectiveness of IPT in reducing suicidal risk was found to be imprecise due to incomplete reporting of results, indicating the need for further conclusive and evident research.