This study compares three types of psychotherapy for adolescent major depression, cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), systemic behavioral family therapy (SBFT), and non-directive supportive therapy (NST). By the time of review, an estimated 110 patients will have been randomized to treatment. The protocol has specified 12-16 sessions over 12-16 weeks, two to four booster sessions over the next four months, and two years of follow-up after the end of acute treatment Siblings of the patients are also followed up two years. The goals of the renewal are to: . complete one- and two-year follow-up assessments on the patients and their siblings; . finalize all data analyses; . prepare manuscripts for publication.
The aims of the analyses are to assess: . the differential effects of the three treatments on depression, suicidality, and social competence at the end of acute treatment and over the course of follow-up; . the impact of age, hopelessness, and degree of family discord on the relative efficacy of CBT and SBFT; . the specificity of treatment effects; . the relative impact of SBFT vs. the two individual treatments in preventing the onset of depression in siblings of the adolescent depressed patients. . the predictors of remission and of recurrence of depression. This is the largest clinical trial of psychosocial treatments of adolescent major depression. The results of this study will be useful to clinicians and researchers with respect to design of psychosocial treatments, fit of treatment to patient characteristics, development of maintenance treatments to prevent recurrence of depression and development of interventions to prevention depression.
Showing the most recent 10 out of 19 publications
