Considering harm and safety in youth mental health: a call for attention and action

Psychological interventions for depression in children and adolescents: A bibliometric analysis

BACKGROUND

Depression has gradually become a common psychological disorder among children and adolescents. Depression in children and adolescents affects their physical and mental development. Psychotherapy is considered to be one of the main treatment options for depressed children and adolescents. However, our understanding of the global performance and progress of psychological interventions for depression in children and adolescents (PIDCA) research is limited.

AIM

To identify collaborative research networks in this field and explore the current research status and hotspots through bibliometrics.

METHODS

Articles and reviews related to PIDCA from January 2010 to April 2023 were identified from the Web of Science Core Collection database. The Charticulator website, CiteSpace and VOSviewer software were used to visualize the trends in publications and citations, the collaborative research networks (countries, institutions, and authors), and the current research status and hotspots.

RESULTS

Until April 16, 2023, 1482 publications were identified. The number of documents published each year and citations had increased rapidly in this field. The United States had the highest productivity in this field. The most prolific institution was the University of London. Pim Cuijpers was the most prolific author. In the context of research related to PIDCA, both reference co-citation analysis and keywords co-occurrence analysis identified 10 research hotspots, including third-wave cognitive behavior therapy, short-term psychoanalytic psychotherapy, cognitive behavioral analysis system of psychotherapy, family element in psychotherapy, modular treatment, mobile-health, emotion-regulation-based transdiagnostic intervention program, dementia risk in later life, predictors of the efficacy of psychological intervention, and risks of psychological intervention.

CONCLUSION

This bibliometric study provides a comprehensive overview of PIDCA from 2010 to present. Psychological intervention characterized as psychological-process-focused, short, family-involved, modular, internet-based, emotion-regulation-based, and personalized may benefit more young people.

Editorial: Primum non nocere - are adverse events accurately reported in studies on psychological interventions for children?

Adverse Events (AEs) are defined as any unfavorable and unintended sign or symptom, that may occur during or after receipt of any intervention. The principle of non-maleficence requires careful consideration to ensure that existing or new psychological interventions are not harmful before they can be considered beneficial. In this context, the safety of psychological interventions, including the possible occurrence of AEs, is increasingly important for patients, families, and clinicians. The evaluation of AEs is crucial to obtain a complete understanding of the risk/benefit balance of psychological interventions. There is a need for researchers and clinicians to assess and report AEs comprehensively and in a coordinated manner. It is necessary to have more accurate data on the recording of AEs in protocols to enhance transparency and consistency, as well as to improve practice. Finally, and to facilitate this process, there is a need for standards for data collection.

Research on the Influence Mechanism of Rational Consumers' Food Safety Supervision Satisfaction

As emerging food safety incidents have gained widespread concerns, research on consumers’ attitudes towards this issue is crucial to create effective solutions. To this end, in accordance with relevant data of consumers in 13 cities with subordinate districts, Jiangsu province, this paper divided different consumer groups by their experience so as to study their degree of satisfaction towards food safety and corresponding influencing factors. According to the descriptive statistics and the building of the cumulative logistic regression model, the results therefrom showed that consumers with direct or indirect experience have separate attitudes towards food safety which cannot be changed by changing consumers’ personal characteristics. Moreover, the two groups are divided in their demands in food production and consumption along with exceptions on policy implementation, etc. Finally, suggestions to improve consumers’ satisfaction are given in at the end of the paper.

Retreating From Life: The Boy Whose Body Experienced His Pain

The expression of psychological distress through somatic symptoms is most prevalent among children. Somatic symptom disorders represent a difficult category of disorders to treat and they are often misdiagnosed due to their physical symptomology and dismissed due to their malingering stigma. The current case report follows the treatment of David, a 10-year-old Caucasian male, admitted into the pediatric psychiatric ward of a general hospital, uncommunicative, showing little signs of responsiveness, and dependent on nursing staff for basic needs. Following a complex treatment protocol which integrated key elements of psychodynamic and cognitive-behavior (CBT) treatment recommendations for somatic disorders, David was discharged after 6 months as an inpatient. This in-depth case study provides a synthesis of the varied research on somatic symptom disorders and an acute understanding of how to combine the understanding of complex family dynamics and individual personality structure with empirically reinforced treatment strategies.

Recent developments in the treatment of major depressive disorder in children and adolescents

Major depressive disorder in adolescents is an important public health concern. It is common, a risk factor for suicide and is associated with adverse psychosocial consequences. The UK National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines recommend that children and young people with moderate-to-severe depression should be seen within Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services and receive specific psychological interventions, possibly in combination with antidepressant medication. Cognitive behavioural therapy (in some studies) and interpersonal psychotherapy have been demonstrated to be more effective than active control treatments for depressed adolescents. For children with depression, there is some evidence that family focused approaches are more effective than individual therapy. Fluoxetine is the antidepressant with the greatest evidence for effectiveness compared with placebo. Treatment with antidepressants and/or psychological therapy is likely to reduce suicidality, although in some young people, selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors lead to increased suicidality. There is limited evidence that combination of specific psychological therapy and antidepressant medication is better than treatment with monotherapy. There are methodological limitations in the published literature that make it difficult to relate study findings to the more severely ill clinical population in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services. Young people should have access to both evidence-based psychological interventions and antidepressants for paediatric depression. Collaborative decisions on treatment should be made jointly by young people, their carers and clinicians, taking into account individual circumstances and potential benefits, risks and availability of treatment.