Clinical Effectiveness of TARA Compared to Standard Treatment for Adolescents and Young Adults With Depression
Condition(s) studied
Investigational drug(s) / intervention(s)
Training for Awareness Resilience and Action (TARA): See arm-description
Standard treatment: See arm-description
Study summary
Depressive Disorders constitute an increasing global health concern and available treatments for young people have not been sufficiently effective in haltering this trend. The novel group treatment program "Training for Awareness, Resilience, and Action" (TARA) was developed to target specific mechanisms based on neuroscientific findings in adolescent depression. TARA is framed within the National Institute of Mental Health's Research Domain Criteria and has documented feasibility and preliminary efficacy in adolescents with depression.
In this study, young people (age: 15-22) with depression will be recruited from specialized Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Youth Clinics and randomized to receive either TARA or Standard Treatment (ST) until n=67 is reached in each arm. Outcome measures will be obtained before randomization (T0), 6 weeks after treatment start (T0.5), at 3- and 6 months follow-up (T1, T2). The primary outcome measure is Reynold's Adolescent Depression Scale (RADS-2) score at T1. Secondary outcome measures are RADS-2-score at T2, clinician depression rating with Children's Depression Rating Scale, Revised at T1,and self-rated anxiety with Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children, 2nd ed. at T1 and T2.
Other outcomes include heart rate variability and systemic bioindicators for depression from blood and hair. Data collected from subgroups within the study will include: brain magnetic resonance imaging and accelerometry. Qualitative interviews will be performed to reach a more comprehensive understanding of the subjective experience of being depressed and to what extent treatment adequately addresses this experience. A 2-year follow-up (T3) will be performed and presented separately.
The study will be the first Randomized Controlled Trial to examine the clinical effectiveness of TARA compared to ST for young people with depression. The investigators hypothesize that (1) TARA will result in greater reduction of depression symptoms compared to ST and that group differences will be maintained or increased at T2, (2) the treatment effect of TARA will be mediated by improved emotion regulation, sleep, and psychological flexibility, (3) bioindicators for depression will improve more in the TARA-arm compared to the ST-arm, (4) it will be possible/meaningful to explore the contextual factors perceived to drive the depression onset and maintenance, and the extent to which the different treatments address these factors.
Eligibility
Primary outcome measure(s)
- Reynold's Adolescent Depression Scale 2nd edition — 3 month follow-up
Self report. Total raw-score. Raw score range is 30-120 and higher scores mean a worse outcome.
Trial sites (3)
| Facility | City | Region | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ungdomshälsan/primary care | Umeå and Skellefteå | Västerbotten County | |
| Barn och Ungdomspsykiatriska kliniken | Umeå, Skellefteå, and Lycksele | Västerbotten County | |
| Barn och Ungdomspsykiatriska kliniken | Örnsköldsvik and Sundsvall | Västernorrland County |
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This page summarises publicly available registry data for informational purposes — not medical advice. Eligibility is determined by each study team; patients should discuss participation with their clinician.
View NCT04747340 on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗ ← All trials in Sweden