A NEW treatment is being offered to teenagers from York and North Yorkshire who are suffering from depression.

ComBAT - Community-based Behavioural Activation Training- will recruit up to 300 people aged 12-18 from schools, third sector organisations and children and adolescent mental health services across the region.

They will be encouraged to take part in enjoyable, purposeful and meaningful activities that can lift their mood, energise them and stimulate their interest and pleasure in day-to-day life.

A spokesperson said Behavioural Activation helped people with depression re-engage with activities, so they could re-experience the emotional rewards of pleasure and achievement that were lost during depression.

They said clinicians and researchers from Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust (TEWV), Hull York Medial School, and the University of York were leading the research, which was being funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR), the research partner of the NHS, public health and social care.

"The programme of work will take place across the Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust geographical area, which stretches from Country Durham and Teesside to North Yorkshire, including York," they said.

"The behavioural activation sessions will guide and support each young person to identify, schedule, complete and monitor day-to-day activities that counteract avoidance and rumination and become sources of enjoyment and achievement.

"These activities are a balance between pleasures such as playing music, exercising, reading, fashion or gaming, and necessary tasks or routines such as preparing food, washing, shopping, working, or caring for a family member or a pet.

"The activities are tailored to the interests, circumstances, people and goals that are important to each young person. A graded and stepped approach to activities is used to overcome obstacles such as hesitation and tiredness that are to be expected with depression."

Professor Dave Ekers, Clinical Director for Research & Development at TEWV, said: “Behavioural Activation is a well-established and effective therapeutic intervention for adults, and we think it is a very promising intervention for young people, too.

“There have been two pilot studies implementing Behavioural Activation in adolescents, but this will be the first large scale randomised controlled trial for this intervention."

Lina Gega, Professor of Mental Health at Hull York Medical School, University of York, who leads the project on behalf of the trust, said: "The ComBAT programme will evaluate the benefits, acceptability and value for money of Behavioural Activation compared to usual care for young people with mild to moderate depression.

“Depression negatively affects young people’s lives, including their personal and academic development, their relationships with others and their sense of self. Schools and community agencies alongside the NHS play an important part in broadening access to clinically informed interventions that can change the trajectory of depression and improve young people’s lives."