Background: Depression is a relatively common disorder in adolescents, which often lasts into adulthood. Depression in children and adolescents increases the risk of new potential episodes and other mental disorders. In addition, the risk of physical health problems and negative psychosocial outcomes increase. Left untreated, the condition may become chronic. To avoid the burden of the condition and to reduce a potential lifetime of mental health care needs evidence based prevention strategies is needed.
Objectives: To review and summarize the evidence on effect of interventions preventing depression in children and adolescents by conducting av overview of systematic reviews.
Methods: We searched IN SUM: A database of systematic reviews on effects of child mental health and welfare interventions (www.insum.no). IN SUM includes: the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, Campbell Library, DARE (Database of Abstracts of Reviews of Effects), PsycINFO, Medline, Embase, Evidence Based Mental Health and Web of Science. We also searched the Norwegian Institute for Public Health, the Swedish Agency for Health Technology Assessment and Assessment of Social Services, the Danish Health Authority for Systematic Reviews and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) for evidence-based guidelines. We identified eight relevant systematic reviews concerning children and adolescents (