Three-month depressive symptoms in adolescents lower with online SSIs compared with supportive control during COVID-19 pandemic<\/p>\n<\/h3>\n
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THURSDAY, Dec. 16, 2021 (HealthDay News) — Online single-session interventions (SSIs) appear to offer some benefit for adolescents with depression during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a study published online Dec. 9 in Nature Human Behaviour<\/em>.<\/p>\n Jessica L. Schleider, Ph.D., from Stony Brook University in New York, and colleagues conducted a randomized controlled trial to test online SSIs during COVID-19 among 2,452 adolescents (ages 13 to 16 years) with elevated depression symptoms. Adolescents were randomly assigned to a behavioral activation SSI, an SSI teaching that traits are malleable, or a supportive control. The effects of each SSI were examined on postintervention outcomes and three-month outcomes.<\/strong><\/p>\n The researchers found that both active SSIs reduced three-month depressive symptoms compared with the control, and they reduced postintervention and three-month hopelessness, increased postintervention agency, and decreased restrictive eating at three months. There were several differences observed between the active SSIs.<\/p>\n “On average, the effects on depression were moderate; in some teens, the SSIs helped reduce their symptoms a lot, for others only a small amount,” Schleider said in a statement. “But on a public health scale, since the programs are so easily accessible, and free, this type of intervention could help reduce the overall burden of depression in this vulnerable population of youth.”<\/p>\n Several authors disclosed financial ties to the publishing industry.<\/p>\n