ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses cognitive-behavioral treatment of adolescent depression and anxiety disorders. A marked increase in the frequency of depressive conditions, bipolar affective disorders, and attempted suicide has been found to coincide with the onset of adolescence, whereas anxiety disorders show little change in frequency from childhood to adolescence. The coexistence of anxiety and depression is well documented, suggesting that in some cases treatment of anxiety will result in improvement in depressive symptomology, and vice versa. A cognitive-behavioral perspective recognizes the crucial role of perceptions and appraisals in producing emotions. The individual's cognitions and emotional responses are interrelated, so that the specific content of a person's interpretation of an event influences the person's particular emotional response to that event. Adolescent depression encompasses a heterogeneous group of problems not inherent in normal adolescent development. Anxiety disorders most commonly encountered with adolescent clients: phobias, such as social phobia and agoraphobia, and generalized anxiety disorder.
