There are many effective psychological therapies to help teenagers with depression, anxiety or other mental health problems. Unfortunately, for various reasons, most teenagers never get access to a professional therapist. To overcome this problem, some researchers are exploring the potential of brief, “single-session” interventions that can be delivered cheaply and easily to many at-risk teenagers outside of a clinical context. In The Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, Jessica Schleider and John Weisz at Harvard University present extremely promising results from their trial of a 30-minute computer session teaching depressed and anxious teenagers that personality is malleable.
Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology (Dec 20, 2018). DOI:10.1037/ccp0000364
Objective: Screening protocols that rely on a single informant are inadequate in predicting pediatric depression. Multi-informant and risk factor screening approaches are potentially more sensitive methods for identifying depression risk, but the incremental validity of these protocols has not been adequately tested.. To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details.
Because of concerns about potential associations between high doses of citalopram and QTc prolongation in adults, this study examined whether such associations are operant in children. We hypothesized that therapeutic doses of nontricyclic antidepressant medications (non-TCAs) prescribed to children would be cardiovascularly safe. SSSFT staff can use the OVID link, or you can request a copy of this article by replying to this email. Please ensure you are clear which article you are requesting.
Clinical depression in children as young as age 3 has been validated, and prevalence rates are similar to the school-age disorder. Homotypic continuity between early and later childhood depression has been observed, with alterations in brain function and structure similar to those reported in depressed adults. These findings highlight the importance of identifying and treating depression as early as developmentally possible, given the relative treatment resistance and small effect sizes for treatments later in life. The authors conducted a randomized controlled trial of a dyadic parent-child psychotherapy for early childhood depression that focuses on enhancing the child’s emotional competence and emotion regulation.. Login at top right hand side of page using your MPFT NHS OpenAthens for full text. SSOTP (legacy account)- Please contact the library to receive a copy of this article - http://bit.ly/1Xyazai
Canadian Journal of Psychiatry61.12 (Dec 2016): 746-757.
Depression screening among children and adolescents is controversial, and no clinical trials have evaluated benefits and harms of screening programs. A requirement for effective screening is a screening tool with demonstrated high accuracy. The objective of this systematic review was to evaluate the accuracy of depression screening instruments to detect major depressive disorder (MDD) in children and adolescents. To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details.
Comment. Adolescence is an important risk period for the development of depression, when the rates of major depressive disorder and symptoms of depression rise markedly.1 Depressive symptoms and disorders are common in adolescence and are associated with poor long-term mental health, social, and educational outcomes. Adolescent major depressive disorder is often unrecognised and untreated despite evidence that duration of untreated depressive illness is a key factor in predicting recurrence in adult life.2 An Article3 in this issue of Lancet Psychiatry shows the beneficial effect of mental health service contact during adolescence on subsequent depressive symptomatology. Please contact the library to request a copy of this article - http://bit.ly/1Xyazai
Psychosocial stress is a key risk factor for substance abuse among adolescents. Recently, epigenetic processes such as DNA methylation have emerged as potential mechanisms that could mediate this relationship. The authors conducted a genome-wide methylation analysis to investigate whether differentially methylated regions are associated with psychosocial stress in an adolescent population.. Login at top right hand side of page using your MPFT NHS OpenAthens for full text.
Anxiety disorders are common, can result in lifelong suffering, and frequently begin before adolescence. Evidence from adults suggests that altered prefrontal-limbic connectivity is a pathophysiological feature of anxiety disorders. More specifically, in adults with anxiety disorders, decreased fractional anisotropy (FA), a measure of white matter integrity, has been observed in the uncinate fasciculus, the major tract that connects limbic and prefrontal regions. Because of the early onset of anxiety disorders and the increased incidence in anxiety disorders in females during their reproductive years, it is important to understand whether the reduction in uncinate fasciculus FA exists in children with anxiety disorders and the extent to which this alteration is sex related. To address these issues, the authors assessed FA in the uncinate fasciculus in unmedicated boys and girls with anxiety disorders.. Login at top right hand side of page using your MPFT NHS OpenAthens for full text.
Significant controversy surrounds the efficacy of the newer antidepressants for children and adolescents with depression. The controversy largely hinges on meta-analyses of studies that suggest that antidepressants are minimally effective, not effective, or equivalent to placebo. In this review, the author discusses several scientific and clinical complexities that are important to understand in reviewing the antidepressant literature: the strengths and weaknesses of meta-analyses; the scientific and regulatory context for the large number of antidepressant trials in the late 1990s and early 2000s; and the distinction between a negative trial, where the treatment does not demonstrate efficacy, and a failed trial, where methodological problems make it impossible to draw any conclusion about efficacy. It is the premise of this review that meta-analyses that include the large number of industry-sponsored antidepressant trials distort the picture of antidepressant efficacy for teen depression. Industry-sponsored child and adolescent depression trials suffer from a number of implementation challenges and should be considered failed trials that are largely uninformative and not eligible to be included in efficacy meta-analyses. In contrast to the industry-sponsored trials, depression trials funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) (N=2) are characterized by many methodological strengths, lower placebo response rates (30%−35%), and meaningful between-group differences (25%−30%) that support antidepressant efficacy. The NIMH-funded trials, taken together with the demonstrated efficacy of the serotonin reuptake inhibitors for childhood-onset obsessive-compulsive disorder and the anxiety disorders, suggest a broad and important role for antidepressant medications in pediatric internalizing conditions. Login at top right hand side of page using your SSSFT NHS Athens for full text. SSOTP - You can request a copy of this article by replying to this email. Please ensure you are clear which article you are requesting.
A review of clinical study reports compiled by drug companies also suggests that risks may have been under-reported. Clinical study reports usually have more detail than the summaries of published trial results.
Researchers analysed 70 studies which looked at five antidepressants.
They looked specifically at the reports of deaths, suicides, suicidal thinking or suicide attempts, aggression, and a type of extreme restlessness called akathisia.
The results showed that children taking antidepressants had a higher chance of suicidal thoughts or suicide attempts, and of aggression. None of the children in the studied died. Adults in the studies did not have an increased risk of these problems.
The presentation of anxiety disorders in children and adolescents shares similarities and differences with that in adults, and may vary significantly, depending on the age of the individual. Assessment must differentiate anxiety disorders from developmentally appropriate fears as well as medical conditions and drugs that can mimic anxiety states. Aetiology of anxiety disorders in this group encompasses complex genetic and environmental influences. Additional insight into causation is provided by neuroimaging and research into temperament. Recommended interventions include both cognitive–behavioural therapy and pharmacology. Although childhood anxiety disorders generally remit, there remains an increased risk for anxiety and depressive disorders to emerge in adulthood, most likely through heterotypical continuity. Login using your SSSFT NHS OpenAthens for full text. SSOTP - You can request a copy of this article by replying to this email. Please ensure you are clear which article you are requesting.
The mental wellbeing of teenage girls in England seems to have worsened over the past 10 years, a survey by the Department for Education has found.To read the full article, log in using your NHS OpenAthens details
Observational studies report associations between early menarche and higher levels of depressive symptoms and depression. However, no studies have investigated whether this association is causal. You can request a copy of this article by replying to this email. Please ensure you are clear which article you are requesting.
Open access. Despite a wealth of literature, the relationship between anxiety and alcohol use remains unclear. We examined whether (a) child and adolescent anxiety is positively or negatively associated with later alcohol use and disorders and (b) study characteristics explain inconsistencies in findings.
Open access journal. Basic symptoms, defined as subjectively perceived disturbances in thought, perception and other essential mental processes, have been established as a predictor of psychotic disorders. However, the relationship between basic symptoms and family history of a transdiagnostic range of severe mental illness, including major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia, has not been examined.