Behavioral activation for moderately depressed university students: Randomized controlled trial.

Abstract

Although depression is prevalent among university students, limited and dated research has examined theefficacy of behavioral interventions in treating this population (C. Lee, 2005). On the basis of a modifiedversion of the Behavioral Activation Treatment for Depression (BATD; D. R. Hopko & C. W. Lejuez,2007; C. W. Lejuez, D. R. Hopko, & S. D. Hopko, 2001) that involved a structured single-sessionintervention and 2-week treatment interval, the authors conducted a randomized controlled trial com-paring individualized BATD and a no-treatment control for university students with moderate depressionsymptoms ( N 30). Outcome measures assessed depression, environmental reward, social support, andsomatic anxiety. Relative to the control group, repeated measures analyses of variance and reliablechange indices indicated that the BATD group had significantly greater reductions in depression andincreased environmental reward at post-treatment that were associated with strong effect sizes. Astatistical trend suggested that BATD also may show promise toward increasing social support. Givencurrent conditions in many academic institutions that include high demand for mental health services,limited personnel, and time restrictions, brief and parsimonious interventions like BATD may representa viable treatment option. Study limitations and future directions are discussed.Keywords: behavioral activation, college students, depression, treatment outcome