Special treatment could help teens battling depression due to rumination, overthinking

BOSTON - A special type of treatment could help teenagers who suffer from depression and it does not involve medication.

Rumination or overthinking is a common feature of depression in which people get stuck in a cycle of negative thoughts.

Rumination Focused Cognitive Behavioral Therapy or RF-CBT has been shown to help in adults, but what about teenagers?

Researchers at Ohio State University randomized 76 teens ages 14 to 17 with a history of depression to receive 10 to 14 sessions of RF-CBT or any standard treatment.

The teens given RF-CBT reported ruminating significantly less, and brain scans in these teens showed a shift in brain connectivity.

The study suggests that this type of therapy can help teens break out of the "painful mental loops" that contribute to depression.

Mallika Marshall, MD

Mallika Marshall, MD is an Emmy-award-winning journalist and physician who has served as the HealthWatch Reporter for CBS Boston/WBZ-TV for over 20 years. A practicing physician Board Certified in both Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, Dr. Marshall serves on staff at Harvard Medical School and practices at Massachusetts General Hospital at the MGH Chelsea Urgent Care and the MGH Revere Health Center, where she is currently working on the frontlines caring for patients with COVID-19. She is also a host and contributing editor for Harvard Health Publications (HHP), the publishing division of Harvard Medical School.

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