• IPT is a time-limited, dynamically-informed psychotherapy which aims to alleviate patients' suffering and improve their interpersonal functioning.  
• IPT focuses specifically on interpersonal relationships, with the goal of helping patients to either improve their interpersonal relationships or change their expectations about them.  
• In addition, IPT also aims to assist patients to improve their social support so that they can better manage their current interpersonal distress.
• IPT is based on the premise that interpersonal distress is linked to psychological symptoms.   Thus the foci of treatment are threefold:
• Relieving psychiatric symptoms.  
• Resolving the conflicts, transitions, and loss experiences in the patient's interpersonal relationships.  
• Helping the patient to better utilize his or her extended social support network.

The Interpersonal Triad¹ is the primary method for conceptualizing psychological distress in IPT.

THE INTERPERSONAL TRIAD

• An acute interpersonal crisis (stressor) begins the process.
• The ability of the patient to manage the crisis psychologically and biologically is heavily influenced by the patient's biopsychosocial vulnerabilities (diatheses) such as genetic vulnerability to illness, temperament, attachment style, and personality, which may modulate or exacerbate the crisis.
• Social factors such as a patient's current significant relationships and general social support provide the context in which the stress-diathesis interaction occurs, and further impact the individual's ability to cope with his or her distress.  
• Together, these elements form the Interpersonal Triad, which models the basic IPT conceptualization of the development of psychological distress.   This distress may take the form of a major depressive episode, an anxiety disorder, or meet criteria for another DSM-IV diagnosis, but it also includes general interpersonal distress and psychological dysfunction.