Among short-term psychothcrapies developed for the treatment of depression, IPT by Klerman etal. (1984) is meanwhile one of the most well known approaches. IPT has been controlled in a variety of studies proving efficacy. The interpersonal school of psychiatry (Sullivan) is IPT's most influencial theoretical backgrood hypothesizing that all psychiatric illnesses (incl. depression and also here the therapy) develop in an interpersonal context: interpersonal problems may contribute to onset and potentially chronicity of (current) depression or/and depressive symptoms may interfere with interpersonal well being. Refering to research on life events, social support, stress and depression etc. the authors defined four problem areas that can be attributed to depression and will be focussed on in IPT: i) retarded grief, 2) interpersonal conflict, 3) interpersonal role conflict/role transition and 4) interpersonal deficits/isolation. IPT has three parts: Within the introduction period (3-4 sessions) the patient's current depression will be attributed to one (individual) problem area on which will be focused strictly within the main therapy sections. IPT works in a here-and -now framework and connects state and change of depressive symptoms with state and change of interpersonal functioning and well being through therapeutic work. The dual aim of IPT is symptom remission and solving of attributed interpersonal problem by promoting patients interpersonal skills in and out of sessions. Open and focussed exploration, psychoeducation (patient expert of his illness), the explenation of the sick role (Parsons), assessment of the interpersonal inventory/ interpersonal resources, goal attainment scaling, the definition of patient and therapist role during therapy, the explanation of the IPT concept, the agreement on the problem area and a therapy contract are important parts of introductory sessions in IPT. In the main (3/4-14 sessions) period the patient and therapist work on the agreed focus. The IPT manual describes goals and treatment strategies for each problem area. Clarification, self disclosure, communication analysis, option seeking etc. are main techniques in IPT. During termination period the patient resumes what was learned, what still is left, clarify motivation for booster sessions (maintenance), and learn about prophylaxis and crisis management. This CME course will teach IPTbasics so that course members will e. g. be able to start practicing IPT under supervision. The following aspects will explicitly be focused on: 1) time frame, 2) medical model, 3) dual aims of solving interpersonal problems and symptom remission, 4) interpersonal focus on patient's affective engagement solving current life problems contributing to current depression, 5) specific and general psychotherapeutic techniques and 6) empirical support of IPT. Short role playing is used to train IPT techniques. A comprehensive handout will be available. Background informations about adaptations of IPT concept for depressed adolescents (IPT-A), for bipolar disorder 0PSRT) or group concepts (IPT-G) will be given.