Targeted Prevention of Unipolar Depressive Disorder in an At-Risk Sample of High School Adolescents: A Randomized Trial of a Group Cognitive Intervention

doi:10.1097/00004583-199503000-00016

Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry

Volume 34, Issue 3, March 1995, Pages 312-321

https://doi.org/10.1097/00004583-199503000-00016 Get rights and content

ABSTRACT

Objective

This investigation attempted to prevent unipolar depressive episodes in a sample of high school adolescents with an elevated risk of depressive disorder.

Method

Adolescents at risk for future depressive disorder by virtue of having elevated depressive symptomatology were selected with a two-stage case-finding procedure. The Center for Epidemiologic Studies-Depression Scale (CES-D) was administered to 1,652 students; adolescents with elevated CES-D scores were interviewed with the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children. Subjects with current affective diagnoses were referred to nonexperimental services. The remaining 150 consenting subjects were considered at risk for future depression and randomized to either a 15-session cognitive group prevention intervention or an “usual care” control condition. Subjects were reassessed for DSM-III-R diagnostic status after the intervention and at 6− and 12-month follow-up points.

Results

Survival analyses indicated a significant 12-month advantage for the prevention program, with affective disorder total incidence rates of 14.5% for the active intervention, versus 25.7% for the control condition. No differences were detected for nonaffective disorders across the study period.

Conclusion

Depressive disorder can be successfully prevented among adolescents with an elevated future risk.

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: This study was supported by NIMH grant R03-MH48118. For their assistance, we thank Peter Meuhrer, Ph.D., Barbara Kidd, Laura Fenn, Dori Calhoun, Judy DeCourcy, Robin Lieberman, Joyce Liljeholm, Chris Mills, Jackie Rose, and Betty Schallberger; and Oregon City, Gresham, and Lincoln High Schools.

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ARTICLETargeted Prevention of Unipolar Depressive Disorder in an At-Risk Sample of High School Adolescents: A Randomized Trial of a Group Cognitive Intervention

ABSTRACT

Objective

Method

Results

Conclusion

J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry

Behav Ther

J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry

Appl Prev Psychol

J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry

J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 3rd edition-revised (DSM-III-R)

Initial findings on preventive intervention for families with parental affective disorders

Am J Psychiatry

Cognitive Therapy of Depression

BMDP11: life tables and survival functions

Methodological issues in outcome studies of school-based interventions for the prevention of adolescent depression

Sch Psychol Q

School-based primary prevention of depressive symptomatology in adolescents: findings from two studies

J Adolesc Res

Instructor's Manual for the Adolescent Coping with Depression Course

A self- and parent-report measure of adolescent depression: the Child Behavior Checklist Depression Scale (CBCL-D)

Behav Assess

A coefficient of agreement for nominal scales

Educ Psychol Meas

Toward the development of a two-stage procedure for case identification and classification in psychiatric epidemiology

Nonspecific psychological distress and other dimensions of psychopathology

Arch Gen Psychiatry

The incidence of specific DIS/DSM-III mental disorders: data from the NIMH Epidemiological Catchment Area Program

Acta Psychiatr Scand

Hamilton Depression Rating Scale: extracted from regular and change versions of the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia

Arch Gen Psychiatry

Three-year outcomes for maintenance therapies in recurrent depression

Arch Gen Psychiatry

A rating scale for depression

J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry

Self-cognitions, stressful events, and the prediction of depression in children of depressed mothers

J Abnorm Child Psychol

Cognitive vulnerability in children at risk for depression

J Abnorm Child Psychol

ARTICLE
Targeted Prevention of Unipolar Depressive Disorder in an At-Risk Sample of High School Adolescents: A Randomized Trial of a Group Cognitive Intervention