Innovative approaches can help some youth with depression

March 14, 2022

Leap, now called BreathingRoom, focused on teens aged 13 to 18 with depression. The program used mindfulness techniques, including increasing forgiveness, gratitude and compassion while also reducing negative thinking, loneliness and boredom. Teens completed the eight internet-based modules within two months.

The Leap study assessed depression severity at the end of treatment. For intervention youth, severity of depression was significantly reduced compared to controls. Even so, the average depression severity score for Leap youth was still within the range of scores typically experienced by depressed young people. So some young people may still need the support of a practitioner even after trying a self-directed intervention. For more information, see Vol. 14, No. 2 of the Children’s Mental Health Research Quarterly.