Prevention of depression among Icelandic adolescents: A 12-month follow-up

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Abstract

This paper reports the 12-month follow-up results regarding a program designed to prevent the initial episode of depression and/or dysthymia among Icelandic adolescents. This indicated prevention program was implemented in school settings for 14–15 year-old students judged to be “at risk” for depression because of the presence of some depressive symptoms and/or a negative attributional style. We previously reported (Arnarson & Craighead, 2009) that this program, when compared to treatment-as-usual, was effective in preventing the first episode of depression and/or dysthymia at 6-months following completion of the program. Survival analyses of the 12-month follow-up data indicated that the preventive effects were sustained at the end of 1 year following the completion of the prevention program with only 2 of the prevention program participants reporting an initial episode of MDD/DYS versus 13 of the TAU participants (χ2 = 5.02, p = .025). Using logistic regression, we also found that initial level of depressive symptoms significantly (p = .0330) predicted the first episode of depression and/or dysthymia among TAU subjects. The limitations of the study were noted, and future directions of research regarding prevention of depression were discussed.

Section snippets

Participants

The initial participants who participated in a screening process were 1920 ninth grade Icelandic adolescents who were 14- or 15-years-old at the beginning of the study. Following the selection procedures and exclusion and inclusion criteria described in detail in Arnarson and Craighead (2009), 171 participants were randomly assigned to the study conditions. Assessment periods included baseline

Results

Of the 171 students who began the experimental study, 22 dropped out before the completion of the posttest (6 girls and 6 boys from the prevention group, and 6 girls and 4 boys from the TAU group); thus, 149 students (87.1%) participated in the posttest. One hundred thirty six students (79.5%) completed the 6-month follow-up assessment; 35 dropped out before the completion of the 6-month follow-up assessment (10 girls and 10 boys from the prevention group, and 9 girls and 6 boys from the TAU

Discussion

The 12-month follow-up data indicated that the preventive impact of a school-based program designed to prevent the initial episode of depression and/or dysthymia for “at-risk” teens was still present one year following the completion of participation in the program. Students who participated in the prevention intervention program had experienced significantly fewer initial episodes of depression or dysthymia when compared to TAU control participants who only participated in assessments at

Acknowledgements

This research was supported in part by the Icelandic Science Fund (RANNIS), the University of Iceland Research Fund, the Landspitali-University Hospital Research Fund, and the Arnór Björnsson Memorial Fund. The study was also supported in part by a National Institute of Mental Health Grant R03-MH066207 (Craighead, PI), and it was written in part by the support to Craighead of “The Pursuit of Happiness” project established by the Center for the Study of Law and Religion at Emory University and

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