Interpersonal Psychotherapy for Autistic Individuals Experiencing Depression: An Adapted Clinical Framework

Rates of depression among individuals with autism are notably high. Mental health services are often inaccessible, and very few interventions are adapted to their needs. Interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) can be relevant to treating autistic individuals' depression but needs to be adapted. This article presents an adapted IPT framework for treating autistic individuals who have depressive symptoms (IPT-Au). The framework integrates a neurodiversity-informed approach with the classic IPT model along with several key adaptations. IPT-Au accounts for the tridirectional dynamics of interpersonal interactions, depressive symptoms, and autistic lived experience. This model provides a framework for implementing IPT with autistic individuals who have verbal skills suitable for brief psychotherapy.