Back to top

Addressing Adolescent Depression Risk by Adapting Interpersonal Psychotherapy-Adolescent Skills Training (IPT-AST) for Primary Care

Statement of Problem

Rates of depression rise during adolescence and sociodemographic disparities in adolescent depression have been documented. The onset of depression during adolescence has been linked to adverse outcomes into adulthood such as psychological, educational, social and physical health issues. Thus, adolescent depression is a major public health concern.

Adolescent depression risk is often uncovered in primary care during universal screening. Despite this, options for follow-up, especially for youth with mild symptoms, are lacking. While evidence-based prevention programs for addressing adolescent depression exist, many are resource- and time-intensive, thus presenting obstacles to widespread dissemination and implementation.

To mitigate the short- and long-term consequences of depression symptoms and disorders during adolescence, access to high-quality preventive interventions is key.

Description

Next Steps

The goal is for this program to eventually be delivered routinely in settings where adolescents are likely to receive mental health services, including primary care.

Findings from this study can help maximize the reach of adolescent depression prevention programming in a way that is most acceptable to the adolescents in need of these services and the clinicians who would deliver them. The proposed study will pave the way for a large-scale trial to simultaneously examine clinical and implementation outcomes associated with B-IPT-AST. 

Our hope is that this study will yield a depression prevention program that can be widely delivered, and that the opportunity to prevent depression symptoms from worsening in primary care can improve young lives.

This project page was last updated in July 2024.

Suggested Citation

Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, PolicyLab. Addressing Adolescent Depression Risk by Adapting Interpersonal Psychotherapy-Adolescent Skills Training (IPT-AST) for Primary Care [Online]. Available at: http://www.policylab.chop.edu. [Accessed: plug in date accessed here].