What science has shown can help young people with anxiety and depression

Wellcome Trust has published a two-part report summarising what they’ve learned about the evidence for ‘active ingredients’ of effective interventions for youth anxiety and depression – these are the aspects of interventions that make a difference in preventing or managing anxiety and depression.

What’s inside

• brief introduction to Wellcome’s approach in searching for these active ingredients
• findings from 30 reviews we commissioned in 2020 (Part 1) and 21 reviews we commissioned in 2021 (Part 2), which together examined the evidence for 46 active ingredients; these include approaches from the cellular level (such as circadian rhythms and hippocampal neurogenesis), to the cognitive (such as emotion controllability and reduced repetitive negative thinking), to the societal (such as social inclusion and urban access to green space)
• broad reflections on the key insights that we have taken from this work.

Who this is for

• the mental health science community, which we view as including researchers from any field relevant to mental health.