Mental health promotion and prevention interventions in families with parental depression: A randomized controlled trial

• Published in: Journal of affective disorders 2021-01, Vol.278, p.114-121
• Main Authors: Giannakopoulos, George, Solantaus, Tytti, Tzavara, Chara, Kolaitis, Gerasimos
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Child; Children and adolescents; Depression - prevention & control; Greece; Health Promotion; Humans; Mental health promotion; Parental depression; Parenting; Parents; Prevention; Quality of Life
• ISSN: 0165-0327; 1573-2517
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jad.2020.09.070

•Preventive interventions for families with parental depression can also have protective and promotive effects for children's psychosocial development.•Lower-intensity interventions may have an important place in public health approaches to preventing mental illness.•A focus on family relationships and parenting could have greater benefits for children than individual-based therapy for the depressed parent. The transgenerational transmission of affective disorders calls for integrating promotion of child development in the services offered to families with parental depression. The main objective of the present research was to examine the effectiveness and differences in the impact of two relevant interventions in Greece. Thirty families of depressed patients were randomly assigned to the six-to-eight session Family Talk Intervention group and 32 families were included in the lower intensity parent-only two-to-three session Let's Talk about the Children group. Depressed parents and the eldest of their children were assessed prior to the interventions and 4, 10, and 18 months following baseline assessment. In both groups there were significant improvements in parent's depression, anxiety, perceived social support, parenting and family functioning, as well as improvements in child's depression, anxiety, and child emotional/behavioral problems. Child's prosocial behavior, perceived social support, and health-related quality of life were significantly improved in both groups. All positive effects were evident four months following baseline assessment and could be still documented at 1.5-year follow-up. Mixed linear models showed that family functioning and parenting to a lesser extent were associated with the greatest changes in children's psychosocial outcomes in both interventions.. The lack of data regarding parents that refused to receive the interventions may limit generalizability of results. A further limitation is the lack of a no-intervention control group. The study offers a preliminary evidence base for integrating preventive interventions for child mental health in routine clinical practice with adult depressed patients.