Improving Mood for Adolescents Through Teaming With End-Users in Routine Care (The iMATTER Project)

Depression is prevalent during adolescence and is associated with negative outcomes. Mostadolescent depression prevention programs require significant time and resources. Toreduce the research‐to‐practice gap, the present study will test an adapted version of anevidence‐based depression preventive intervention, Interpersonal Psychotherapy‐AdolescentSkills Training (IPT‐AST), to promote its implementation in primary care (PC).Specifically, a brief, scalable prevention program, Brief IPT‐AST (B‐IPT‐AST), will betested in a pilot randomized controlled trial in PC. The pilot randomized controlledtrial will include adolescents ages 13‐17 with subthreshold depression scores on adepression screener, the Patient Health Questionnaire 9‐Item: Modified for Teens(PHQ‐9‐M), completed during an annual PC well‐visit. Adolescents will be randomlyassigned (2:1 allocation) to B‐IPT‐AST or services as usual (SAU). Members of theresearch team will deliver B‐IPT‐AST. Standardized measures for adolescents and legalguardians will be used to examine emotional outcomes (e.g., depression and anxietysymptoms). Standardized measures will be utilized to assess social processes (e.g.,interpersonal conflict). All adolescents randomized to B‐IPT‐AST will complete a surveymeasuring acceptability of B‐IPT‐AST. Additionally, a subset of adolescents whoparticipate in B‐IPT‐AST will be invited to participate in an hour‐long qualitativeinterview to give feedback on their experiences with B‐IPT‐AST to inform any furthermodifications needed to enhance the program's feasibility and acceptability. Feasibilitywill also be assessed via recruitment and retention information and B‐IPT‐AST attendancelogs.