A national review of treatments for depressed adolescents (ages 13-17), with special focus on preventing teen suicide, finds Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to be highly effective. Age-appropriate adaptations of CBT yielded these key results: “CBT achieved a higher remission rate among youth (60%) than either systemic behavior family therapy (37.9%) or nondirective support therapy (39.4%).” Additionally, CBT yielded no adverse effects.
(The reporting agency is a program of the US Department of Health and Human Services Substance Abuse & Mental Health Services Administration.)