Behavioral activation for late adolescents with subthreshold depression: a randomized controlled trial

Abstract

The main behavioral characteristic of subthreshold depression that is observed in adolescents is the low frequency of exposure to environmental rewards. Therefore, it was considered that a simple intervention conducted in short sessions, focusing on increasing access to positively reinforcing activities, would be efficacious in increasing the availability of rewards. We conduct a randomized controlled trial to examine the efficacy of such a behavioral activation program that was conducted weekly for 5 weeks in 60-min sessions. Late adolescent university students aged 18-19 years with subthreshold depression were randomly allocated to a treatment (n = 62) or a control group (n = 56). The primary outcome of the study was the Beck Depression Inventory-II score. Results indicated that late adolescent students in the treatment group showed significant improvements in their depressive symptoms (effect size -0.90, 95 % CI -1.28 to -0.51) compared to the control group. Students in the treatment group also showed significant improvements in self-reported rating of quality of life and in behavioral characteristics. It is concluded that this intervention had a large and significant effect despite being short and simple and that this low-intensity cognitive behavioral therapy program could be conducted in many different types of institutions. It is suggested that the long-term effects of the treatment program should be targeted for investigation in future studies.

Mechanisms of behavioral activation for late adolescents: Positive reinforcement mediate the relationship between activation and depressive symptoms from pre-treatment to post-treatment

“…The participants also completed self-report scales through the Internet. We conducted the intervention to examine the efficacy of a behavioral activation program targeting late adolescent students with subthreshold depression (Takagaki et al, 2016). Participants who joined the behavioral activation program completed pre-and post-treatment assessments in treatment group.…”

“…Behavioral activation model requires measurement of both behavior, functionally defined, and contact with environmental reinforcement, the BADS and the EROS together may achieve this goal (Manos et al, 2010). Therefore, Takagaki et al (2016) investigated the efficacy of a behavioral activation program for late adolescents in order to examine behavioral activation mechanism of action by using BADS and EROS. Their results indicated that the program was effective, with participants receiving the treatment showing a significant improvement in their self-reported ratings of depressive symptoms.…”

Effects of behavioural activation on the neural basis of other perspective self-referential processing in subthreshold depression: a functional magnetic resonance imaging study

“…The BA intervention is described in detail elsewhere (Takagaki et al 2016). Briefly, the BA intervention included five weekly sessions, each of 60 min duration.…”

Effects of behavioral activation program without psychotropic medication treatment for depression in late adolescence: case report

“…It is important to increase feelings of a sense of pleasure or mastery and to decrease avoidant behaviors and ruminations to decrease depressive symptoms 15,16. Therefore, based on earlier studies,15–17 we developed a behavioral activation program for late-adolescent people with major depressive disorder. The first author (KT) administered behavioral activation to her with a program consisting of 10 weekly 60-minute sessions.…”