Behavioral Activation for Depressed Teens: A Pilot Study

Behavioral activation (BA) is a psychosocial intervention that has shown promising treatment outcome results with depressed adults. The current pilot study evaluated a version of BA adapted for depressed adolescents. Six teens (3 male, 3 female, ages 14-17) who met criteria for major depressive disorder participated in the study. Participants were allowed to attend a maximum of 22 sessions (50 minutes each) over 18 weeks. Parents were systematically included in treatment for joint sessions at the beginning, middle, and end of treatment; therapists were also given the latitude to include parents idiographically as needed. Results showed that participants' depression scores decreased significantly; in addition, scores on a measure of hope improved significantly. Implications of these findings, study limitations, and suggestions for future directions are discussed.