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

Purpose of the review: 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.

Collection and analysis of data: 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.

Conclusions: 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.