New research reveals that a cognitive behavioral program for teens at risk of depression may help prevent future depressive episodes. However, the program did not show benefits for teens with a currently depressed parent.
The research by Judy Garber, professor of psychology at Vanderbilt’s Peabody College of education and human development and professor of psychiatry, will be published in the June 3 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association. Garber presented the findings at a JAMA media briefing in New York City June 2.
Garber and her colleagues worked with 316 at-risk teens in the study. Approximately half of the teens were randomly assigned to an eight-week cognitive behavior group program, in which they were taught problem-solving skills and ways to identify and challenge unrealistic and overly negative thoughts. The researchers found that the group in the cognitive behavior program had an 11 percent lower incidence of depression than the group that did not receive the intervention.
The second key finding was that those within the cognitive behavior group who had a currently depressed parent were three times more likely to experience a bout of depression than their cohorts in the group who did not have a currently depressed parent.
“Current parental depression could be a marker for several, non-mutually exclusive factors such as higher levels of stress in the family, more chronic or severe parental depression, and/or greater genetic vulnerability,” Garber said. “It is likely that a combination of these and other factors are involved. We are in the process of examining possible correlates of current parental depression.”
Garber and her colleagues suggest clinicians working with depressed parents should also inquire about their children’s well-being, and vice versa.
“Clinicians working with depressed parents, should ask about how their children are doing. Similarly, clinicians working with depressed youth should evaluate the parents for depression,” Garber said. “Referrals to appropriate service providers should be made if the children or parents, respectively, are experiencing problems. Making these services available to families in the same setting, likely would facilitate their receiving them.”
Only about 25 percent of depressed youth receive treatment and at least 20 percent develop recurrent, persistent and chronic depression that is very difficult to treat. Teenagers who experience depressions can have trouble with schoolwork, relationships, substance abuses and are at higher risk of suicide. Adolescent-onset depression also often predicts chronic depression in adulthood.
The study took place at four sites: Vanderbilt University, University of Pittsburgh, Kaiser Permanent Center for Health Research in Portland, Ore., and Judge Baker Children’s Center/Children’s Hospital in Boston, Mass.
For more information and video on this study from JAMA, visit www.jamamedia.org.
Garber is an investigator in the Vanderbilt Kennedy Center for Research on Human Development.
Media Contact: Melanie Moran, (615) 322-NEWS
melanie.moran@vanderbilt.edu