Primary prevention of anxious and depressive symptoms in adolescents

This paper describes the design of a large scaled intervention study to prove the effectiveness of a prevention programme for anxiety and depression. In addition the development and application of a programme for the primary prevention of anxiety and depression in adolescents is presented. The treatment targets anxious and depressive symptoms, cognitive distortions and attributional styles as well as social skills in 14 to 18 year old high-school students. First results on the efficacy of the prevention treatment are reported. We found small but positive effects on cognitive and social risk factors over a 6 months period. The effects of the prevention programme depend on the fidelity of the treatment implementation.