A meta-analysis of indicated mental health prevention programs for at-risk higher education students.

Abstract

This meta-analysis found empirical support for the effectiveness of indicated prevention programs for higher education students at risk for subsequent mental health difficulties based on their current subclinical levels of various presenting problems, such as depression, anxiety, or interpersonal difficulties. A systematic literature search identified 79 controlled published and unpublished interventions involving 4,470 college, graduate, or professional students. Programs were effective at post-intervention overall (ES = 0.49, CI [0.43, 0.55]), and for both targeted outcomes (ES = 0.58, CI [0.51, 0.64]) as well as additional nontargeted outcomes assessed in the studies (ES = 0.32, CI [0.25, 0.39]). Interventions compared with a no-intervention or a wait-list control (ES = 0.64, CI [0.57, 0.71], k = 68) demonstrated significantly larger effects overall than did interventions compared with an attention-placebo control (ES = 0.27, CI [0.11, 0.43], k = 11), although both were significant. Among the former group, modality and presenting problem emerged as significant moderators of intervention effectiveness, and among the 43 of these that assessed effectiveness at an average follow-up period of 35 weeks, the positive effects from intervention remained strong (ES = 0.59, CI [0.50, 0.68]). Overall, programs were fairly brief, attracted and retained students, were positively rated by students, and effective when administered by paraprofessionals as well as professionals. Current findings are promising and stimulate recommendations for improving future research, such as expanding the range of outcomes assessed, and clarifying moderators and mediators of intervention impact. (PsycINFO Database Record

Symptomatic distress and effectiveness of psychological treatments delivered at a nationwide student counseling service

“…Meta-analyses show that evidence-based psychological interventions for depression (Cuijpers et al, 2015), and general stress problems (Regehr, Glancy, & Pitts, 2013) are efficacious also for college and university students. Other meta-analyses indicate that students benefit from interventions directed at test anxiety (Ergene, 2003), and alcohol abuse (Carey, Scott-Sheldon, Garey, Elliott, & Carey, 2016;Samson & Tanner-Smith, 2015), and from preventions programs for students at risk of developing mental health problems (Conley, Shapiro, Kirsch, & Durlak, 2017). Furthermore, numerous studies have used the student counseling setting to investigate a broad range of clinical issues, e.g., feedback, therapist effects, dose-effect relationships, the effect of specific psychotherapy approaches, and psychometric measures (see, for examples, Minami et al (2009)).…”

Prevalence of emotional and behavioral problems and subthreshold psychiatric disorders in Austrian adolescents and the need for prevention

“…Prevention can hamper up to one quarter of new cases of depression cases per year or at least delay the onset of clinically relevant symptoms [26] and is known to have a positive impact on subclinical symptoms [27]. …”

“…All of them have been found to effectively reduce MHP in children and adolescents [28], but prevention programs targeted at high-risk populations generally show higher effects than universal prevention programs [22, 26, 27]. As the early prevention can improve the well-being and productivity, decrease future burden, provide health and socioeconomic benefits, reduce adult psychiatric disorders, and reduce costs for the healthcare system, addressing MHP in adolescents is a priority for the global health agenda due to ethical responsibility and economic reasons [28].…”

Feasibility and Effectiveness of a Workplace-Adapted Mindfulness-Based Programme to Reduce Stress in Workers at a Private Sector Logistics Company: An Exploratory Mixed Methods Study

“…MBPs are a type of mind-body intervention that aim to train the mind to adopt nonjudgemental, present-focused awareness [45]. This type of training for the self-regulation of attention might decrease stress and facilitate well-being by helping the practitioner to learn to stay in the present moment with curiosity and acceptance [31,46].…”