Online Interventions Designed to Curb Adolescent Depression Works

New online mental health programs are easily accessible to reduce the overall burden of depression in adolescents.

The single-session interventions are a very much needed tool for adolescent depression and loss of some in-person mental health services during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Teenagers who experience depression symptoms often cannot access professional help. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, it is estimated less than half of adolescents/teenagers with depression access help.

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‘The online single-session interventions are safe and support teens who have limited access to mental health intervention or have not sought care.’

One recent study suggested that childhood and adolescent anxiety and depression doubled during the first year of the pandemic.

Knowing these facts, a new study published in Nature Human Behaviour containing more than 2,400 adolescents aged 13 to 16 years tested whether single-session, online and free-of-charge interventions could significantly reduce depression in teens who were struggling.

Adolescents experiencing elevated depressive symptoms participated in one of two online single-session interventions (SSI), the first teaching was about the idea that taking positive action that can boost mood.

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The second teaching was about the idea that depression symptoms and personal traits are changeable. They were recruited for the study via social media (Instagram) and came from all 50 U.S. states.

They created a control, “placebo” SSI, and two skills-based SSIs and then tested three-month outcomes measuring depression, hopelessness, generalized anxiety, Covid-related trauma, and restrictive eating.

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“We discovered that both of the SSIs significantly reduced teens’ depression symptoms and levels of hopelessness compared to the control group three months later,” says Jessica Schleider, Ph.D., Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Stony Brook University.

The overall results of the study confirm the utility of free-of-charge, online SSIs for high symptom adolescents, even in the high-stress COVID-19 context.

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On average, the effects on depression were moderate. In some teens, the SSIs helped reduce their symptoms a lot, for others only a small amount.

There is no cure for depression, and in-person therapy with trained professionals result in full symptom remission in around 50 percent of the time for adolescents/teenagers.

The SSIs are not meant to replace other in-person counseling-specific treatments but they are useful for teens who have limited access to intervention or have not sought care.

Researchers will continue to assess the effectiveness of SSIs for mental health intervention in teens.

Source-Medindia