Project Summary
Adolescence represents a peak time for the emergence of depressive disorders. Because adolescents who experience depressive symptoms are likely to develop future depression, the treatment of adolescent depression may reduce the burden of distress and dysfunction across the life course. Thus, the provision of evidence-based interventions for adolescents with depressive symptoms is particularly important. Clinical guidelines and practice principles from organizations such as the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry recommend the use of evidence-based psychosocial interventions as the first-line treatment for the majority of childhood mental health disorders. However, these interventions’ comparative effectiveness remains unexplored.
We have an established multi-stakeholder partnership and have assembled a community advisory board (CAB). Our engagement efforts thus far have identified comparative clinical effectiveness research (CER) questions. The Pipeline to Proposal Independent Tier III award will convene regular CAB meetings, which will be vital to the development of a CER proposal. The CAB includes patients and caregivers, clinicians trained in the evidence-based interventions, patient advocates, and other stakeholders. CAB members have expertise in various disciplines and are involved in community agencies that will be critical to informing our research proposal. In addition to CAB meetings, we will hold focus groups of patients, caregivers, clinicians, and other stakeholders to inform the construction of a future CER proposal.