access to the three predominate means of suicide (guns, medications, and high places).
Eddy et. al. (1989) also state that about 7 percent of depressed youths will receive therapy at a crisis center or other facility aimed at helping them with this problem. The proposed study examines the effectiveness of a group therapy intervention provided at a crisis intervention center for a sample of depressed adolescents. The intervention will consist of ten 1 and 1/2 hour sessions (provided twice a week) to a group of ten severely depressed adolescents. The form of group therapy given will be that of affective education aimed at helping youth understand and cope with the types of problems that can lead to depression.
The rationale motivating the proposed examination of crisis intervention group therapy for severely depressed adolescents is based on the fact that the existing work on group therapy with depressed adolescents has evidenced good success. For example, Clarke, Hops, Lewinsohn and Andrews (1991) evaluated 59 depressed adolescents who received group therapy for depression using a cognitive-behavioral psychoeducational treatment approach. For one-third of the subjects, parents were also provided with group therapy, and for another third of the sample were merely placed on a waiting list.
Findings yielded good levels of treatment success. Specifically, prediction analyses examined treatment recovery via (1) discriminant function analysis predicting membership in Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-age Children/Research Diagnostic Criteria diagnosis-based recovered and not recovered groups and (2) hierarchical block regression analysis predicting residual (HBRA) change on the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI).
Treatment was associated with lower intake levels on the BDI, lower intake state anxiety, higher enjoyment and frequency of pleasant activities, and more rational thoughts. In the H...