Browsing by Subject "nuoruusiän masennus"

Depression during adolescence is a significant problem. Depression causes harm to adolescents and it is associated with many negative outcomes, including academic problems, impaired social relationships, substance abuse, mental health problems and suicide. Thus, prevention of adolescent depression is extremely important and many prevention programs have been developed to do so. The purpose of current thesis is to examine the effectiveness and applicability of cognitive-behavioral prevention programs for adolescent depression. Prevention programs are classified into three categories on basis of the populations to whom the interventions are directed. Universal programs are provided to all members of a target population, selective programs are targeted to individuals at elevated risk for depression, and indicative programs are provided to individuals who manifest subclinical depression symptoms. These programs differ in their effectiveness in depression prevention and in their applicability. Universal programs are more applicable and more inexpensive than selective or indicative programs. According to the existing findings, selective and indicative programs seem to be more effective in preventing depression in adolescence than universal programs and selective and indicative programs seem to be as effective. Longer programs and programs that have older adolescents and more female participants, seem to be more effective in preventing depression. The most common limitations of studies so far are the relatively short follow-ups. In future there is a need for longer follow-ups and more longitudinal studies.