Whole-Body Health: Behavioral Approaches to Managing Depression in Primary Care

Pediatricians are typically the first people families trust to discuss their child's mental health concerns and are uniquely positioned to help address the problem of limited access to mental health services. This article covers brief behavioral interventions pediatricians can use to help treat mild depressive symptoms in the primary care context. Interventions include strategies for talking about depression (eg, validating experiences, normalizing difficulties, and emphasizing whole-body health), educating patients and their families (eg, psychoeducation about signs, symptoms, and treatment options), using brief behavioral and cognitive interventions (eg, behavioral activation and cognitive coping), and including a family and culturally sensitive approach to symptom management. [.