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Background: Colombia is a middle-income country in South America, which has historically had high rates of mental health problems, coupled with a scarcity of mental health care. There is growing concern for the mental health of the adolescent population within this region. There is a significant treatment gap for young people, especially those living in the most vulnerable areas. DIALOG+ is a low-cost patient-centered intervention that can potentially improve the delivery of care and quality of life for adolescents with mental health problems. Objective: This exploratory randomized controlled trial aims to evaluate the effectiveness, acceptability, and feasibility of an adapted version of the DIALOG+ intervention (DIALOG-A) in the community treatment of Colombian adolescents with depression and anxiety. Methods: In total, 18 clinicians and 108 adolescents will be recruited from primary health care services in Bogota and Duitama, Colombia. Clinicians will be randomized 2:1 to either the intervention (12 clinicians:72 adolescents) or control group (6 clinicians:36 adolescents). In the intervention arm, clinicians will use DIALOG-A with adolescents once per month over 6 months. The control arm will continue to receive routine care. Outcomes will be measured at baseline, 6 months, and 9 months following randomization. Semistructured interviews with all clinicians and a subset of adolescents in the intervention arm will be conducted at the end of the intervention period. Quantitative and qualitative analysis of the data will be conducted. Results: Trial recruitment was completed toward the end of October 2022, and follow-up is anticipated to last through to October 2023. Conclusions: This is the first study to test an adapted resource-orientated intervention (DIALOG-A) in the treatment of adolescents with depression and anxiety attending primary care services. If the results are positive, DIALOG-A can be implemented in the routine care of adolescents with these mental health problems and provide valuable insight to other middle-income countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We sought to explore mental health and psychosocial impact among young people (18 to 24 years old) in Bogotá during the first months of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: We carried a cross sectional study using a web-based survey to assess mental health and personal impact among 18 to 24 years old living in Bogotá during the first 4 months of the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic lockdown. The depressive symptoms were measured with PHQ-8 and anxiety symptoms with (GAD-7). We also designed a questionnaire exploring changes in personal, family and social life. Results: Overall, 23% of the sample (n = 834) reported mild depressive symptoms (males 24% and females 23%); 29% reported moderate depressive symptoms (males 28%, females 30%); 22% moderate-severe symptoms (males 20%, females 23%) and 17% severe symptoms (males 15%, females 17%). Mild anxiety symptoms were reported by 29% of the sample (males 30%, females 29%); moderate anxiety symptoms by 29% (males 26%, females 30%); moderate-severe 18% (males 15%, females 20%) and severe anxiety by 6.0% (males 6.0% and females 6.0%). High symptoms of depression (PHQ-8 = 10) were associated with being female, considering that the quarantine was stressful, having one member of the family losing their job, worsening of family relationships, decrease of physical activity and having a less nutritious diet. Having high anxiety symptoms (GAD-7 = 10) were associated with sometimes not having enough money to buy food. Conclusions: The first months of the pandemic lockdown were associated with high depressive and anxiety symptoms among young persons living in Bogotá, Colombia. Increasing public health measures to provide support for young people is needed during lockdowns and it is necessary to further explore the long-term mental health impact due to personal, family and social changes brought by the COVID-19 pandemic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As online mental health support groups become increasingly popular, they require more support from volunteers and trained moderators who help their users through "interventions" (i.e., responding to questions and providing support). We present a system that supports such human interventions using Natural Language Generation (NLG) techniques. The system generates draft responses aimed at reducing moderators' workload, and improving their efficacy. NLG and human interventions were compared through the ratings of 35 psychology interns. The NLG-based system was capable of generating messages that are grammatically correct with clear language. The system needs improvement, however, moderators can already use it as draft responses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]