Depression within the field of child and family therapy

Depression within the field of child and family therapy

The article Evidence-Based Update of psychosocial Treatment for Children and Adolescent depression identifies that depression is a significant problem in the modern world. The authors suggest that the depression that starts in childhood and adolescence causes chronic illnesses and other impairments in adulthood. Depression is associated with impaired romantic, and peer relationships, poor academic achievements, low socioeconomic status, and risks of early death. Therefore, the problems that start in childhood and adolescents hurt them as adults. Thus, it is essential to address the issues early in the life of a person to save them from destruction.

The writers give background information to show that depression is a severe issue deserving the attention of all stakeholders. They argue that the works of Merikangas, Nakamura, and Kessler (2009) as proof that depression among the youth starts during adolescence. According to Sander and McCarty (2005), depressive disorders are lower in pre-adolescence years but begin to increase at the onset of puberty. The disorders increase and persist until late adulthood. Depression that occurs during adolescence is likely to recur in adulthood and cause chronic illnesses (Maughan, Collishaw, Stringaris, 2012). Therefore, it is essential to learn how to make interventions early in the life of a child to treat it and prevent the disorders from recurring in their adult life.

Treatment research in youth depression began in the 1980s. The first evidence-based treatment (EBT) in youth depression published in 1998. The review identified 14 studies focusing on the treatment of symptoms of depression in children and adolescents. The majority of the articles focused on behavioral and cognitive-behavioral interventions. Across this literature, interventions of depressed youths with the involvement of parents led to a quick recovery. The next publication was in a 2008 study by David-Ferdon and Kaslow that reviewed youth depression literature. By 2008, there were more than 28 additional studies, with ten focusing on children while 18 sampled adolescents (Weersing et al., 2017). The authors use these studies to conclude that there was sufficient evidence to encourage psychosocial intervention for youth suffering from depression. The writers argue that active control conditions.

The purpose of the current study was to provide a comprehensive EBT for psychosocial treatment for child and adolescent depression. They pay closer attention to the clinical severity of samples, the strength of control conditions, and patterns of null and negative findings in addition to positive effects. The specific aims of the study were to first provide a review of published trials since the 2008 survey to provide an overview of current findings in youth depression research (Weersing et al., 2017). Secondly, the report re-evaluates most of the literature on the treatment of youth suffering from depression. It seeks to weigh the cumulative evidence for various approaches and revise the status of therapy using updated methodical criteria and standards for proof. The study treats children and adolescents separately. Thirdly, the study commends notable findings in the youth depression field in terms of predictors, moderators, and mediators’ effects.

The review followed guidelines by the methods described by Southam-Gerow and Prinstein for the current special series of Evidence-Based Updates. The study includes randomized controlled trials (RCT) of psychosocial treatment for depression in children and adolescents. The review also excluded trial testing medications. The research conducted a literature review on all new treatment trials published since the 2008 EBT review. Secondly, the writers conducted a secondary analysis from trial reports (Weersing et al., 2017). More importantly, they copied the search terms of the 2008 EBT review to maintain a consistent approach to the study. The writers search words in online databases and later separate the articles according to subject and treatment categories. Although the methods used in this study are similar to previous ones, it departs from them in three significant ways. First, it adopts theories over manuals as the central unit of analysis. Second, it focuses on the treatment of clinically significant depression. Third, it considers the balance of negative and positive findings when evaluating interventions and classifying their level of support. As a result, the youth depression evidence that the article evaluates differs significantly from previous studies.

The authors conclude that cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) is the best-supported treatment model in the evidence base. Second, evidence supporting treatment for depression in children was weak and worse than evidence for adolescent interventions. In all the literature, CBT was the dominant intervention (Weersing et al., 2017). The dominance is because of the large number of CBT trials and replications rather than on the strength of individual trial findings. For example, in a sample of 40 studies, there were 27 CBT trials for depressed teens against six tests for IPT. The review provides several sobering perspectives for the treatment of depression in children. Across all domains, the researcher has a lot of work to develop, test, and implement effective interventions for depressed children and adolescents capable of producing enduring positive outcomes.

The authors conclude that depression among children and adolescents is one of the leading causes of mental illness in the world today. Although there is a lot of progress in studying the subject, there is a lot of ground to cover because the studies are not conclusive. It is crucial to reduce depression in children and adolescents because it will reduce the problem among adults. Therefore, it is essential to continue developing, testing, and implementing interventions of child and adolescent depression interventions with the aim of producing positive outcomes.