Mother-daughter interactions among depressed Puerto Rican adolescents: Two case studies in CBT

Résumé

This article presents two case studies of adolescents receiving cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) for depression to illustrate how family patterns, particularly mother-daughter interactions, contribute to the perpetuation of depressive symptoms and to treatment response. Participants were two adolescent girls selected for this case study from a larger sample of adolescents participating in a randomized clinical trial on therapy for depression. Both cases required additional therapy sessions to reduce depressive symptoms. The first case presented no depressive symptoms at therapy termination and the second continued to present mild symptoms although neither met criteria for Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). During the last follow up assessment one case presented a relapse of MDD. However, when calculating the reliable change index individually, both cases presented significant clinical changes.