State Quo of Anxiety and Depressive Disorder in Parents of Teenagers with Major Depressive Disorder, Associated Factors and Efficacy Evaluation of Self-Service Based Cognitive Behavioral Therapy on Line

Purpose: To investigate the status quo of generalized anxiety disorder (GAD) and depressive disorder (DD) and the efficacy of interventions in parents of adolescents with major depressive disorder (MDD).

Design/Methodology/Approach: 428 parents of adolescent MDD patients were enrolled through convenient sampling from January 2022 to December 2023. Of these, 58, meeting the severe criteria for GAD and DD, received self-service-based online cognitive behavioral therapy.

Findings: 224 (52.34%), 216 (50.47%) of the parents in adolescent MDD patients met the diagnostic criteria for GAD and DD, respectively. The scores of Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7(GAD-7) and Patient Health Questionnaire-9 items (PHQ-9) negatively correlated with subjective social support, utilization of social support and positive coping style, and positively correlated with negative coping style (P<0.01). Logistic regression showed that female, insufficient subjective support, support utilization, insufficient positive coping style and excessive negative coping style were risk factors for GAD and male, insufficient subjective support, support utilization, insufficient positive coping style and excessive negative coping style were risk factors for DD in parents of adolescent MDD patients (P<0.05 or 0.01). After self-service based cognitive behavioral therapy on line, subjective support, support utilization and positive coping style were improved, while negative coping style was decreased, and the scores of GAD-7 and PHQ-9 were decreased significantly correspondingly (P < 0.01).

Conclusion: The parents of adolescent MDD patients have higher rate of GAD, DD and self-service based cognitive behavioral therapy on line can alleviate their anxiety and depression by improving social support and coping style.