CLINICAL TRIAL article
Front. Psychiatry
Sec. Anxiety and Stress Disorders
Volume 16 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1461887
Reducing Anxiety Symptoms in Adolescents with Pre-Existing Depression: Results from a Randomized Control Trial
Provisionally accepted
- 1University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
- 2University of Stavanger, Stavanger, Norway
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Depression and anxiety have a long history of co-occurrence, with a relatively high prevalence in the Norwegian population both separate and combined. In adolescence, this prevalence increases significantly and may impact youths' social and academic functioning drastically. Having effective treatments aimed at adolescents may have potential to prevent both short and long-term effects associated with these disorders. The aim of the current study was to examine whether the "Adolescent Coping with Depression Course" (ACDC), a cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT)-based group intervention aimed at adolescents with subclinical mild-to-moderate depressive symptoms, would also be effective in reducing anxiety symptoms. Data, which came from a two-arm parallel cluster randomised control trial conducted in Norway, were collected from 228 adolescents, 133 of whom were assigned to the 14-week ACDC intervention and 95 were assigned to the usual care condition. The data were analysed with structural equation modelling and the results indicated that the intervention is effective in reducing anxiety symptoms via reducing the depressive symptoms, thus illustrating an indirect effect. Implications of the results were presented.
Keywords: Depression, Anxiety, Group CBT, adolescents, randomized control trial
Received: 09 Jul 2024; Accepted: 23 May 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Solberg, Idsoe and Keles. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Thormod Idsoe, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
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