Brief Cognitive Therapy for Depressed and Suicidal Adolescents: a Critical Comment

After providing a brief overview of cognitive-behaviour therapy & its current use in treating suicidal adolescents, the author focuses on 2 important issues regarding its theoretical rationale & research: (1) the justification for limiting the therapeutic focus for depressed & suicidal youngsters to problem-solving deficiencies; & (2) the justification for the extremely short-term interventions for such youngsters. He concludes that there is a theoretical incompatibility between the knowledge about the complexity of depression & suicidal behaviour, & the therapeutic processes of such very short-term cognitive interventions. (25 refs)