Depressed youth: Treatment outcome and changes in family functioning in individual and family therapy

This study explores the role of family functioning in therapeutic change in focused individual psychodynamic psychotherapy (FIPP) and time-limited systems integrative family therapy (SIFT) for depressed children and adolescents. After a screening process, 72 participants aged 8 to 15 were randomized to either FIPP or time-limited SIFT. Assessments took place prior to, at the end of, and 6 months after treatment. Families in both SIFT and FIPP showed a small but significant and sustained improvement in family functioning by the end of treatment in both mothers' self-reports and family therapists' assessments. Better family functioning at baseline in mothers' self-reports and improved family functioning during SIFT, as assessed by family therapists, predicted a sustained decrease in self-reported depressive symptoms. Results indicated that time-limited SIFT may be more effective with younger children and in patients without a diagnosis of double depression than adolescents.