Appendix EClinical questions
1. Screening/detection/risk/early identification
What risk factors are associated with depression in children and young people?
Do screening instruments for depression have an influence on detection of depression in children and young people?
How might services be organised to detect depression in children and young people?
2. Pharmacological interventions
For children and young people who are depressed
*, does any antidepressantφ when compared with placebo/comparator drug, produce benefits/harms on the specified outcomes?
For children and young people who are depressed
*, does any drug treatment (other than antidepressants) when compared with placebo/comparator drug, produce benefits/harms on the specified outcomes?
For children and young people who are depressed
*, does any antidepressant when compared with any psychological intervention produce benefits/harms on the specified outcomes?
For children and young people who are depressed
*, does the combination of an antidepressant and a psychological intervention when compared with an antidepressant alone/psychological intervention alone produce benefits/harms on the specified outcomes?
3. Psychological interventions
4. Self-help, family support, inpatient & other treatments
For children and young people who are undiagnosed but at high risk of depression, does self-help or other psychological interventions when compared with ‘standard care’ alone, produce benefits/harms on the specified outcomes?
For children and young people who are undiagnosed but at high risk of depression, does family support/parental education when compared with ‘standard care’, produce benefits/harms on the specified outcomes?
For children and young people who are depressed, does self-help when compared with ‘standard care’, produce benefits/harms on the specified outcomes?
For children and young people who are depressed, does family support/parental education when compared with ‘standard care’, produce benefits/harms on the specified outcomes?
For children and young people who are depressed, is there any subgroup for which inpatient treatment produces benefits on the specified outcomes?
For children and young people who are depressed, is there any subgroup in which social/environmental treatments alone produce benefits on the specified outcomes? (for example, in young people who are experiencing bullying or abuse)?
5. Relapse prevention
For children and young people who are depressed, do antidepressant drugs, when compared with ‘standard care’, prevent relapse in the long term when prescribed in the recommended maintenance dose range?
For children and young people who are depressed, how long should antidepressant drug treatment be continued for prevention of relapse?
For children and young people who are depressed, do psychological interventions, when compared with ‘standard care’, prevent relapse in the long term?
- *
Sub-analyses will be done where possible by severity of depression (mild to moderate, and severe), service user characteristics (for example, age: 5–10, and 11–17 years old), comorbidity (such as, substance abuse, anxiety, physical symptoms, behavioural disorders), other factors (for example, school refusal, depressed parent, ethnicity), and treatment response/resistance (such as, severely and/or chronically depressed children who have not responded to an adequate trial of an antidepressant).
- †
Sub-analyses will be done where possible by class of antidepressant (such as, tricyclic and related antidepressants, SSRIs, MAOIs, other antidepressants) and treatment characteristics (for example, frequency and length of treatment).
