Research digest: adolescence

Introduction

By the time this issue of the Journal of Child Psychotherapy is published, readers are likely to have read in full the first article in our Digest, namely the results of the IMPACT trial reported in The Lancet in November 2016. However, as this trial, and the publication of its results, form a major milestone in the history of research in the outcomes of child psychotherapy, we make no apology for taking it as the starting point for this Digest. Any readers who have not yet read it should note that the article is Open Access and hence freely available.

The results have caused lively debate in psychotherapy research circles. The study has yielded a volume of data that has also spawned many other studies throwing light on different aspects of adolescent depression. Many of these other ‘spin-off’ studies are listed here. It is hoped that the wealth and richness of the data collected will continue to form the basis of further research in this field for years to come.

Many of the articles derived from the IMPACT data are qualitative and form part of the IMPACT-ME (My Experience) research arm led by Nick Midgley. Of note is the study by Stapley et al. on parents’ experience of their children’s depression, a little researched perspective yielding some surprising themes. Further, two studies by Midgley et al. take unusual and intriguing approaches, viz. young people’s experience of taking part in a randomized controlled trial, and young people’s ideas about why they have got depression. These are also well worth reading. There is also, naturally enough, a study about young people’s experience of depression, and a helpful methodological paper about the use of framework analysis as a qualitative research method (Parkinson et al.).

The second half of this Digest presents abstracts of studies unrelated to IMPACT, that throw light on various aspects of adolescent depression. Taylor et al. report on depression in young people with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome; and two studie