Trajectories of change in general psychopathology levels among depressed adolescents in short-term psychotherapies.

OBJECTIVE

to identify and describe trajectories of change in general psychopathology () levels among depressed adolescents who received one of three types of short-term therapies (namely Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy, Short-Term Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, and a Brief Psychosocial Intervention).

METHOD

Participants were 465 adolescents with MDD who participated in an RCT comparing three treatments for depression. Narrow-band measures of depression, anxiety, obsessions-compulsions, and conduct problems were assessed at six-time points, and bifactor analysis was performed to extract factor scores. These scores were submitted to Latent Class Growth Analyses to identify patterns of change over time.

RESULTS

Three different trajectories of change in were identified. Two trajectories displayed reductions in across time-points: one a rapid decrease, and the other slower but steady improvement. The third trajectory indicated a limited decrease in up until the 12th week after baseline but no further improvement at subsequent time-points. Patients' baseline significantly predicted their outcome trajectories.

CONCLUSION

Exploring change in seemed to describe more parsimoniously the patients' outcomes than the narrow-band assessment of depressive symptoms. Patients with high baseline were more likely to have poorer outcomes, potentially indicating a need to develop more intensive and tailored treatments for this population.