Self-compassion Therapist-led Online Group Treatment for Adolescents With Distress, Anxiety, and Depression

Background: Distress, anxiety and depression are highly prevalent in school health care or primary care. Many of these conditions remain undiscovered and/or untreated. Compassion-focused therapy (CFT) is effective in the treatment of adults' distress and depression, and we will now evaluate the preliminary effect of a brief therapist-led online group CFT, feasibility, and acceptability in low-threshold distressed, anxious, and depressed adolescents. We use online group CFT to increase availability. Purpose: The purpose of this study is to determine whether therapist-led online group CFT is feasible and acceptable for the treatment of depression in adolescents between 15 and 20 years of age, in Sweden. The preliminary effect will be calculated to examine if a larger experimental randomized controlled trial is justified. Study design: A two-arm (treatment group vs. control group) pilot randomized controlled trial will be carried out with 40 adolescents. The effect, feasibility, and acceptability of the therapist-led online CFT in groups will be evaluated.