A $3.6 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health will help a University of Rochester team better study how to fight depression in low-income teenage girls, and began initial work on the grant as soon as they were notified on July 13 that they had received it.
Sheree Toth, the executive director of U of R’s Mt. Hope Family Center who will be leading the research team, said in a press release that, while girls are twice as likely than boys to be depressed, it can be even more troubling when the teen is from a disadvantaged background, saying:
“Female teens burdened by poverty, racial discrimination or a history of abuse face even greater odds of developing the mood disorder. Yet there has been little research on therapies for these at-risk youths.”
For the study, Toth and her team will follow 350 girls ages 13 to 15, as early teenage years is considered one of the peak times for the emergence of depression. The girls will be of various ethnic and racial backgrounds but will all come from low-income families. They will go through a three-and-half month treatment program called Interpersonal Psychotherapy for Adolescents, which, according to a press release, will be “focused on the present, not the past,” and will take place in friendly settings, such as at home or in cars. The therapies effects will be evaluated in a 18 month follow-up by investigators.
In addition, the role of hormones and genetics will be looked at by the research team.
Susan Hagen, a press officer for the university, said that the girls will be drawn from the Monroe Department of Human Services and the University of Rochester Medical Center’s pediatrics department, but noted they are receiving requests from other organizations and medical settings who are interested in getting involved.
A $3.6 million grant from the National Institute of Mental Health will help a University of Rochester team better study how to fight depression in low-income teenage girls, and began initial work on the grant as soon as they were notified on July 13 that they had received it.
Sheree Toth, the executive director of U of R’s Mt. Hope Family Center who will be leading the research team, said in a press release that, while girls are twice as likely than boys to be depressed, it can be even more troubling when the teen is from a disadvantaged background, saying:
“Female teens burdened by poverty, racial discrimination or a history of abuse face even greater odds of developing the mood disorder. Yet there has been little research on therapies for these at-risk youths.”
For the study, Toth and her team will follow 350 girls ages 13 to 15, as early teenage years is considered one of the peak times for the emergence of depression. The girls will be of various ethnic and racial backgrounds but will all come from low-income families. They will go through a three-and-half month treatment program called Interpersonal Psychotherapy for Adolescents, which, according to a press release, will be “focused on the present, not the past,” and will take place in friendly settings, such as at home or in cars. The therapies effects will be evaluated in a 18 month follow-up by investigators.
In addition, the role of hormones and genetics will be looked at by the research team.
Susan Hagen, a press officer for the university, said that the girls will be drawn from the Monroe Department of Human Services and the University of Rochester Medical Center’s pediatrics department, but noted they are receiving requests from other organizations and medical settings who are interested in getting involved.
