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Fewer than 20% of adolescents with depression receive treatment, partly because of a shortage of qualified mental health providers. Could a computerized intervention fill this gap? To find out, investigators in New Zealand randomized 187 adolescents (60% female; mean age, 15.5 years) who sought help for clinically significant depression to receive usual treatment (face-to-face therapy provided by trained counselors or general practitioners) or a computerized cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) intervention (SPARX).
Clinically significant depression was defined as a score of 10 to 19 on the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 or self-reported and clinician-verified depression troubling enough to require intervention. The computerized CBT interventi…