Psychosocial treatments for adolescent depression

Major Depressive Disorders affect between 2 % and 5 % of adolescents at any one point in time. Depression in adolescence is associated with serious ps ychosocial deficits and has negative effects on functioning during young ad ulthood. Starting with the pioneering work of Lenore Butler and her colleag ues, many psychosocial interventions have been developed and studied, with generally positive results. On the basis of a meta-analysis of the existing cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) studies we estimate an overall effect s ize of 1.27 and that 63% of patients show clinically significant improvemen t at the end of treatment. It seems reasonable to conclude that CBT has bee n demonstrated to be an effective treatment for depressed adolescents. In t his article we describe these interventions, most of which are meant to add resss the problems shown by depressed adolescents. The purpose of our artic le is to bring this literature to the attention of clinicians in a manner w hich quickly and clearly summarizes the key features of the interventions t o make it easy for clinicians to take advantage of this wealth of informati on and to avail themselves of the existing resources. We conclude by sugges ting future directions and sever-al additional areas of application for ado lescent depression treatments. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ltd.