A Novel Psychotherapy for Depression in Very Young Children

Previous research established that preschoolers can experience major depressive disorder (MDD), diagnosed with one symptom fewer than required for older children (e.g., Arch Gen Psychiatry 2009; 66:897). Age-appropriate treatment, however, has been especially challenging because of the desirability of avoiding pharmacotherapy and because children's behaviors intertwine with those of their caretakers. To overcome these obstacles, researchers modified the manual-based Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) to include an emotional development (ED) module, designed to improve children's emotion regulation and guilt.

PCIT-ED was tested in a single-blind trial involving 229 parent-child dyads; the children were diagnosed with MDD and were ages 3 …