The acceptability of treatments for depression to a community sample of adolescent girls

An efficacious treatment is diminished in value if consumers do not seek it out and adhere to it, making treatment acceptability an important predictor of the effectiveness of treatment. This study examined the acceptability of treatments for depression to 67 female high school students. All participants read a vignette describing a depressed adolescent and rated the acceptability of four single treatments for depression (cognitive-behavioral therapy, interpersonal therapy, family therapy, and pharmacotherapy) and three treatment combinations. Psychotherapy approaches were generally more acceptable to adolescents than combinations of psychotherapy and pharmacotherapy; and, pharmacotherapy used alone was not acceptable. For interpersonal therapy and family therapy only, treatment acceptability was related to perceived causes of depression. Across all treatments, acceptability was not associated with symptom severity. Implications for increasing the utilization of mental health services in this population are discussed.