Depression is a chronic, recurring disorder that impacts children’s academic, interpersonal, and family functioning. The heritability of major depressive disorder (MDD) is likely to be in the range of 31% to 42%. This chapter begins with a brief overview of the etiology of depression. It presents a description of a cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) intervention designed to be delivered in a group format, an individual interpersonal intervention, and an individual behavioral activation (BA) intervention that includes a great deal of parental involvement. The ACTION program is a manualized program that is based on a cognitive behavioral model of depression. There are four primary treatment components to ACTION: affective education, coping skills training (BA), problem-solving training, and cognitive restructuring. The chapter concludes with a brief discussion of universal therapeutic techniques to be incorporated into work with depressed youth regardless of the therapeutic orientation or treatment strategy.

Eating disorders (EDs) are a complex and comparatively dangerous set of mental disorders that deeply affect the quality of life and well-being of the child or adolescent who is struggling with this problem as well as those who love and care for him or her. The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5) outlines specific criteria for the diagnosis of anorexia nervosa (AN), bulimia nervosa (BN), binge eating disorder (BED), and other specified feeding or ED. Treatment of eating disordered behavior typically involves a three-facet approach: medical assessment and monitoring, nutritional counseling, and psychological and behavioral treatment. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) are also evidence-based approaches to treatment for AN. The treatment of EDs should be viewed as a team effort that integrates medical, nutritional, and mental health service providers.

The baby boom cohort brings with it multiple types of substance abuse. Bisexual older adults have more co-occurring psychological problems than heterosexual older adults, older gay males, and older lesbians. An interesting finding is that immigration is contributory to older adult substance abuse. Older adults with alcohol-abuse problems do not seek help for their problems. Rather, they are often identified as having an alcohol-use problem when seeking care for other medical or psychological problems. Social workers assessing an older adult for alcohol abuse often confuse symptoms of possible alcohol abuse with dementia. Prescribing opioids and synthetic opioids to an older adult is complicated. An older adult can suffer from many forms of inner tension. Combining motivational interviewing with cognitive behavioral therapy is shown to be more effective for treating substance abuse that either therapeutic modality alone.

Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) with children addresses four main aims: to decrease behavior, to increase behavior, to remove anxiety, and to facilitate development. Each of these aims targets one of the four main groups of children referred to treatment. This chapter suggests a route for applying effective interventions in the day-to-day work of social workers who are involved in direct interventions with children and their families. An effective intervention is one that links developmental components with evidence-based practice to help enable clients to live with, accept, cope with, resolve, and overcome their distress and to improve their subjective well-being. CBT offers a promising approach to address such needs for treatment efficacy, on the condition that social workers adapt basic CBT to the specific needs of children and design the intervention holistically to foster change in children. Adolescent therapy covers rehabilitative activities and reduces the disability arising from an established disorder.

This chapter examines the medical, psychosocial, and vocational characteristics, challenges, and rehabilitation needs of emerging populations of individuals with psychiatric disabilities, and introduces a recovery-oriented approach to providing responsive services to individuals with psychiatric disabilities. It explores integrated, evidence-based, and emerging practices to facilitate better recovery and rehabilitation outcomes for these populations. The onset of psychiatric disabilities occurs during critical years when major changes are occurring in the areas of identity formation and cognitive, psychosocial, psychosexual, and career development. Many individuals with psychiatric disabilities receive their health care in emergency departments and intensive care units and not until their secondary conditions create medical crises. Substance use disorders (SUDs) often co-occur with psychiatric disabilities. The principles of recovery align with the core values and principles of rehabilitation counseling. Illness management and recovery (IMR) is an evidence-based practice for equipping individuals with the knowledge and skills they need to self-manage their disabilities.

The importance of the functioning of mind and the limitations of medication has encouraged some clinicians to advance the use of psychotherapy. In the present period this is mostly in the form of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for schizophrenia and psychosis, and this is strongly promoted in the British Psychological Society (BPS) publication “Understanding Psychosis and Schizophrenia: Why People Sometimes Hear Voices, Believe Things That Others Find Strange, or Appear Out of Touch With Reality, and What Can Help”. Although this document has not been received without criticism, it makes some very interesting reading for us as eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR) therapists and students of the Indicating Cognitions of Negative Networks (ICoNN) model. The meta-analyses that showed the most encouraging effect sizes were looking at two groups: treatment-resistant schizophrenia, and forms of psychotherapy that were highly specific and tailored according to case formulation, targeting delusions and auditory hallucinations.

This chapter covers major depression and discusses the syndrome of depression as defined by criteria in the various versions of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manuals (DSMs) issued before the newly minted DSM-5. It considers the prevalence in time and across national boundaries. The chapter discusses the role of events and genetics in bringing on depression. It provides the link between depressive behaviors and systemic inflammation, and reviews the efficacy, and side effects for various treatments. There has been speculation that brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) might play a causal role in creating symptoms of depression. Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), which involves external application of an electrode, is a Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved treatment for major depression. In the clinical literature, exercise has demonstrated efficacy in ameliorating major depression. Cognitive behavioral therapy is as effective as antidepressants, although it may be slower to achieve results.

This chapter describes how mental health and substance use interact with criminal justice involvement. It examines the common assessment and intervention strategies for co morbid mental health and substance abuse in forensic population and settings. The chapter gives a brief review of how substance use disorders co-occur with psychiatric disorders. The chapter describes prevalence of co-occurring disorders such as anxiety/depression, bipolar disorders, psychotic disorders, personality disorders, and posttraumatic stress disorder in general. It then discusses prevalence of psychiatric disorders in the prison/jail systems. The chapter also describes medication-assisted therapies for opioid use disorders and, treatment and aftercare services. It explores two of the most common types of treatments for those in the CJS, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and 12-Step groups. The chapter further reviews two CBT programs, aggression replacement training and strategies for self-improvement and change.

Early group Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) intervention following trauma may facilitate adaptive processing of traumatic event(s) and help prevent consolidation of traumatic memories following large-scale natural or man-made disaster. Group EMDR may also be usefully applied with homogenous groups, and where professionals are exposed to high levels of work-related stress. Writing is a useful clinical tool in narrative therapy, bibliotherapy and writing therapy. Written journaling to monitor behavior is commonly practiced between sessions of cognitive behavioral therapy. The Written Workbook Protocol allows close adherence to the EMDR Standard 3-Pronged Protocol at all steps until the end of the processing phase, when constraints of the group format come more dramatically into play. Cognitive interweaves necessary to clear potential blocks to processing are more difficult to tailor and implement in group. The potential power of “group cognitive interweaves” emerged spontaneously during multifamily group EMDR with tsunami survivors in Thailand.

This chapter focuses on anxiety disorders and deals with a discussion of the physiology of anxiety, including the major structures involved in the creation of a fear memory. It considers the mechanisms for extinction of conditioned anxiety. The chapter discusses the basic physiology of fear conditioning, specific anxiety disorders namely generalized anxiety disorder (GAD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), and explains treatments. It then reviews the literature about how clients can talk about their fears to minimize them and how relabeling or reappraising of past events can be helpful. There is evidence suggesting that the basal ganglia, structures associated with the control of movement, are involved in the expression of OCD behaviors in subsets of those with OCD. Cognitive behavioral therapy is effective in the treatment of generalized anxiety. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors are also used in the treatment of anxiety disorders.