Systematic Review of Psychotherapeutic Interventions among In-school Adolescents with Psychological Distress

Sylvester Ezechinyere Eze, Susan Olufunmilayo Adeusi, Bolaji Johnson Adesanya, Gboyega Emmanuel Abikoye

Abstract: The aim of study is to provide a systematic review of existing findings of evidence-based interventions on psychological distress among in-school adolescents given the high prevalence of psychological distress among Nigerian adolescent. In this review, studies that focused on cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) and psychoeducation (PET) as treatments for psychological distress among the adolescents were searched in the Science Direct, Cochrane, Scopus, PubMed, Psych-Info and Google Scholar databases from time year 2011 to 2022. Within the limited numbers of evidence-based studies in Nigeria, four studies met the inclusion criteria. While two out the four studies adopted brief-CBT, the other two adopted brief-psychoeducation. With treatment effect size (d= .32), after five sessions of each weekly 60minutes, CBT treatment interventions were effective at reducing psychological distress symptoms among adolescents [F(1, 39) = 16.76, p = 0.0001; F(1, 34) = 15.0, p = .0001] given the treatment intervention and control groups pre-test and post-test scores (intervention group scores [pre-test M= 24.30 (SD=6.59) vs. post-test M= 4.60 (SD=7.35); d= 0.32), control group scores [pre-test M= 24.25 (SD=6.06) vs. post-test M= 17.05 (SD=11.17); and intervention scores [pre-test M= 25.3 (SD=8.8) vs. post-test M= 11.8 (SD=9.5), Control group scores [pre-test M= 24.2 (SD=6.1) vs post-test M= 21.1 (SD=7.9)] for the two CBT studies respectively. Psychoeducation was in part not effective at reducing psychological distress symptoms among adolescents [F(1,36) = 1.56, p = 0.22] after three week sessions of 90 minutes with mean difference scores at post-test [treatment group: M=70.92; SD= 43.22) vs control group M=52.00;SD=77.77), p<0.000). The treatment gaps discovered in studies of PET is essentially indicative of further intervention studies in mental health of the adolescents’ population; given the sparseness in experts availability that can administered CBT in schools of low-income countries that Nigeria belong.