Interpersonal problematic areas in liaison psychiatry: A feasibility study

Objective: Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) model, with its four problematic areas of grief, deficit, role transition and role dispute, provides a useful frame of reference for a quick case formulation. We aimed at applying the IPT problematic areas assessment in a sample of patients from a liaison psychiatry setting. Methods: One-hundred and twenty-nine hospitalized patients of both sexes, aged between 18 and 80 years were interviewed. The 'Interpersonal Problem Areas Rating Scale' (IPARS) was used to detect the interpersonal focuses. Results: IPARS problematic areas were identified in the 76% of the sample (n=98). Grief and role transition, interpersonal deficits and role disputes were, respectively, the most frequently (43.4 and 42.6%, respectively) and the less frequently described focuses (14 and 11.6%). Moreover, 31 patients (24%) showed no problem areas related to current symptomatology. Conclusions: The IPT model has proved to be an easy-to-use tool, able to guide the psychological interview and allowing the collection of information from an interpersonal perspective in a short time, although no specific focuses were detected as related to current psychological distress in around 25% of the sample.