Professor Shirley Reynolds of  University of Reading will speak on:

The puzzle of adolescent depression

Date: Friday 6 March 2020
Time: 12 Noon
Venue: EA407 4th Floor, Easterfield Building

Abstract:

Although adolescent depression is common and has long term adverse effects the treatments we offer are hard to access and only moderately effective. There is a need to develop and improve prevention, early intervention and treatment of depression when it develops in young people.   

Adolescence is a distinct period of social, emotional, cognitive and neural development.Young people who are vulnerable to depression often lack core self-regulation and executive functioning skills and have significant deficits in reward processing. Irritability, low motivation, low self-efficacy and hopelessness present significant barriers to engagement. Thus our research and the treatments we offer should address the specific needs of this population and the specific characteristics of depression amongst this group. I will describe a programme of research exploring characteristics of depressed adolescents and our adaptation and evaluation of Brief Behavioural Activation for young people who are depressed.