ABSTRACT
The basic premise of IPT is that individuals have difficulties because they are faced with an overwhelming stressor in the context of insufficient social support, both in their intimate relationships and in their general social network. Though the lack of sufficient social support is often due in part to deficits within patients’ support systems, it is also frequently due in part to poor communication. This is largely because patients are not communicating their needs clearly, nor in a way to which their social support system can productively respond. As a direct consequence of these maladaptive styles of communication, patients do not get their attachment needs or their needs for emotional and physical support met adequately.
