This Article  • Full text  • PDF  • Send to a friend  • Save in My Folder  • Save to citation manager  • Permissions  Citing Articles  • Contact me when this article is cited  Related Content  • Related article  • Related letter  • Similar articles in JAMA  Topic Collections  • Pediatrics  • Adolescent Medicine  • Psychiatry  • Depression  • Alert me on articles by topic  Social Bookmarking   What's this?

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

To the Editor: In their randomized controlled trial, Dr Garber and colleagues¹ provided important information on the successful prevention of adolescent-onset depression using an evidence-based psychotherapy in high-risk adolescents. In their study, if a parent was currently depressed the adolescent did not benefit from treatment. This observation is consistent with other data suggesting that if a currently depressed mother is successfully treated, her children's symptoms are more likely to improve.

An ancillary study of children of parents receiving treatment as part of the Sequenced Treatment Alternatives to Relieve Depression (STAR*D) found that remission of maternal depression after 3 months of medication was significantly associated with reductions in the children's diagnoses and symptoms.² Conversely, a failure to remit was associated with worsening in child outcomes, paralleling observations by Garber et al that cognitive behavioral therapy did not confer a protective effect among the offspring of currently depressed parents. The STAR*D findings . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Myrna M. Weissman, PhD
mmw3@columbia.edu

Ardesheer Talati, PhD
Department of Psychiatry
Columbia University
New York, New York

CiteULike    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    Twitter     What's this?

RELATED ARTICLE

Prevention of Depression in At-Risk Adolescents: A Randomized Controlled Trial
Judy Garber, Gregory N. Clarke, V. Robin Weersing, William R. Beardslee, David A. Brent, Tracy R. G. Gladstone, Lynn L. DeBar, Frances L. Lynch, Eugene D’Angelo, Steven D. Hollon, Wael Shamseddeen, and Satish Iyengar
JAMA. 2009;301(21):2215-2224.
ABSTRACT | FULL TEXT  

RELATED LETTER

Depression in At-Risk Adolescents and Their Parents—Reply
Judy Garber, Greg Clarke, and V. Robin Weersing
JAMA. 2009;302(11):1167-1168.
EXTRACT | FULL TEXT