Prevention of Depression in At-Risk Adolescents

Vanderbilt University316 enrolled

Overview

This study examines the impact of a group cognitive behavioral program aimed at preventing depressive disorders and symptoms in adolescents at risk for developing depression.

Depression is a prevalent, chronic, and impairing condition that is often undetected and becomes more difficult to treat as chronicity increases. There is an increasing need to conduct large-scale depression prevention studies in adolescents. This study evaluates a cognitive-behavioral prevention (CBP) program to determine its effectiveness in preventing depressive disorders in at-risk adolescents. The study also will ascertain the costs this intervention to inform attempts at future dissemination of the program in "real world" settings. Participants in this study are randomly assigned to receive either CBP for eight weekly and 6 monthly continuation sessions or usual care. Depressive symptoms and disorders, levels of functioning, and medical and mental health care utilization are assessed at baseline and again at 2, 8, 20, and 32 months after intake.

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

SINGLE

Enrollment

316

Conditions

Depression

Interventions

Cognitive-behavioral prevention programBEHAVIORAL

Cognitive-behavioral prevention program includes 8 weekly and 6 monthly group sessions.

Usual careOTHER

Participants receive usual care

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 13 YearsMax age: 17 Years

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: * A parent has had a depressive disorder during child's life * Adolescent has had a past depressive episode or has current subsyndromal depressive symptoms measured on the Center for Epidemiological Studies Depression Scale (CES-D) Exclusion Criteria: * adolescent or parent ever diagnosed with bipolar I or schizophrenia; * adolescent has a current DSM-IV mood disorder diagnosis

Locations (4)

Harvard University Medical School

Boston, Massachusetts, United States

Kaiser Permanente Center for Health Research

Portland, Oregon, United States

University of Pittsburgh Medical Center

Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States

Vanderbilt University

Nashville, Tennessee, United States

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Onset of a probable or definite depressive episodes (i.e., Depression Symptom Rating greater or equal to 4)

a score of 4 or greater is considered an onset

Time frame: Time to a score of 4 or higher between baseline and 9 months using survival analysis

Secondary Outcomes

Number of depression-free days

Using the depression symptom ratings (DSR) (1-6), each week is given a score of 1 to 6; depression-free days are those with ratings of 1 or 2 on the DSR.

Time frame: Measured continuously through Month 33

Data from ClinicalTrials.gov

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