ATTEND

Adolescent and carers using mindfulness Therapy to END depression

WHAT IS ATTEND?

ATTEND is a research study looking to find a new, effective treatment for depression and low mood in adolescents; that’s why we developed MAC (Mindfulness for Adolescents and Carers). Although we don’t yet know how effective this new treatment is, previous research in mindfulness-based interventions suggests positive results and this study is a chance for you to work with us in developing and testing this treatment.

 

WHY ARE WE DOING THIS STUDY?

Having depression or anxiety as a teenager is hard and can have a big impact on friendships, family relationships, education and employment. After receiving their first treatment, many young people still have some symptoms, or could experience another period of depression or anxiety in the future – it can seem like it’s following you around.

We want to know if MAC can help young people and their families to learn to recognise unhelpful thoughts and feelings, as well as to equip them with effective stress-coping strategies. In the long run, we want to see if symptoms of low mood or depression would improve over time and become less likely to persist in the future.

To see if the MAC treatment works well, and to understand how it works, we want to recruit about 480 young people across the country to our study.