Author year, country | Study details | Population characteristics | Intervention and comparator | Outcomes | Reason for exclusion |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Randomized trials | |||||
 Guo 2017 USA [59] | Cluster RCT to examine the effects of universal depression screening | Elementary school setting involving seventh and eighth grade Asian American and Latino students | Intervention: Universal depression screening using the Patient Health Questionnaire for Adolescents (PHQ-A) Control: No mental health screening | Referral, acceptance, and receipt of care | No primary outcomes related to mental health reported. The study evaluated school-based mental health service referrals, caregiver consent for services, and treatment initiation. |
 Mahoney 2017 USA [64] | Multisite RCT to understand the internal barriers of implementing a targeted preventive intervention, CATCH-IT | Adolescents between the ages of 13 and 18 | Intervention: CATCH-IT, a 14-module Internet-based depression prevention intervention that involves mental health screening and depression prevention treatment. Control: General health education | Internal barriers to successful implementation using REACH framework (proportion of target audience exposed to intervention) | Focused on barriers to implementing a preventive intervention and included those with either a past major depressive disorder diagnosis or a CES-D score of 8 to 17. |
 Mirzaie 2019 Afghanistan [63] | Sought to validate the Maria Kovacs Children’s Depression Inventory to assess depression. | High school students in Afghanistan (grades 7 to 9) | Intervention: Maria Kovacs children’s depression inventory Control: Beck’s depression Inventory | Validity, reliability, sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values | Both groups were offered screening tools and limited information was provided on the included students. |
 Rinke 2019 USA [60] | Stepped-wedge cluster RCT of quality improvement collaborative (QIC) | Pediatric primary care clinics including health care providers trained in quality improvement and diagnoses of adolescent depression | Intervention: Quality improvement collaborative Control: No attempt for quality improvement | Frequency of recognition and diagnosis of adolescent depression | Information on participant characteristics limited, therefore, unclear whether study included participants with characteristics that were part of our exclusion criteria. The study did not report a pre-defined cut-off score to identify patients who may have depression. |
 Sterling 2018 USA [61] | Pragmatic cluster randomized implementation and effectiveness trial on delivering Screening and Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) | Adolescents (age 12 to 18) who screened positive in a general pediatric primary care clinic | 1st arm: Pediatrician-only, in which pediatricians were trained to delivery SBIRT 2nd arm: embedded behavioural clinician (BC), in which pediatricians refer eligible adolescents to a BC who administered SBIRT Control: Usual care | Substance use and depression measures | Focused on identifying and delivering early intervention and treatment services to individuals at risk of developing substance use disorders and those who have already developed these disorders. Included adolescents who endorsed substance use or depression symptoms or were eligible for further assessments. |
 Thabrew 2019 New Zealand [62] | RCT to compare the performance and acceptability of YouthCHAT screening and HEEADSSS assessment | 13-year-old high school students attending a nurse-led clinic | Intervention: YouthCHAT, a depression screening tool based on the PHQ-A Control: HEEADSSS, assessment, a psychosocial interview-based assessment to identify mental health and substance use problem. | Completion times, detection rates, and acceptability | Both groups received depression screening or assessment. There was no control group who received no depression screening. |
Non-randomized trials | |||||
 Carrozzino 2016 Italy [65] | Clinimetric validation analysis of the Kellner Symptom Questionnaire and the Screen for Children Anxiety Related Emotional Disorders (SCARED) scales for depression and anxiety screening in adolescents | Adolescents with epilepsy, using participants without epilepsy as the control group. | Group: Patients with epilepsy Control: Patients without history of epilepsy disorder or any diagnosis of neurological disease or chronic medical illness | Validity, reliability, and frequency of recognition and diagnosis of adolescent depression | Validation study. There was no control group who received no depression screening. Did not exclude those who had a history of depression or who were already under treatment. |
 Harder 2019 USA [66] | Quality improvement study to evaluate the impact of a quality improvement learning collaborative on adolescent depression screening. | Medical files from seventeen pediatric serving (pediatric and family medicine) practices. | Group: Practices voluntarily participated in quality improvement initiative Control: Practices did not participate in the quality improvement initiative | Frequency of screening and documenting of initial plans of care | Not a depression screening study. No control group who did not receive depression screening. No information was reported on the adolescent population and limited information on the control group. |