Preventing Depression: a Randomized Trial of Interpersonal Psychotherapy-adolescent Skills Training

Background: The study evaluated the efficacy of an indicated prevention program for adolescent depression.

Methods: Fifty-seven adolescents with elevated depression symptoms were randomized to receive Interpersonal Psychotherapy-Adolescent Skills Training (IPT-AST) or school counseling (SC). Hierarchical linear modeling examined differences in rates of change in depression symptoms and overall functioning and analysis of covariance examined mean differences between groups. Rates of depression diagnoses in the 18-month follow-up period were compared.

Results: Adolescents in IPT-AST reported significantly greater rates of change in depression symptoms and overall functioning than SC adolescents from baseline to post-intervention. At post-intervention, IPT-AST adolescents reported significantly fewer depression symptoms and better overall functioning. During the follow-up phase, rates of change slowed for the IPT-AST adolescents, whereas the SC adolescents continued to show improvements. By 12-month follow-up, there were no significant mean differences in depression symptoms or overall functioning between the two groups. IPT-AST adolescents reported significantly fewer depression diagnoses in the first 6 months following the intervention but by 12-month follow-up the difference in rates of diagnoses was no longer significant.

Conclusions: IPT-AST leads to an immediate reduction in depression symptoms and improvement in overall functioning. However, the benefits of IPT-AST are not consistent beyond the 6-month follow-up, suggesting that the preventive effects of the program in its current format are limited. Future studies are needed to examine whether booster sessions lengthen the long-term effects of IPT-AST.