Our pilot work and other recent data suggest the importance of considering how low positive affect contributes to suicide risk. In a study of psychiatrically hospitalized suicidal adolescents conducted by our team, low positive affect prospectively predicted time to suicidal events (i.e., either a suicide attempt or an emergency intervention for an acute suicidal crisis) in adolescents over 6 months of follow-up (Yen et al., 2013). This effect remained significant after controlling for a number of other predictors, including depression severity and anhedonia (Yen et al., 2013). So we translated these findings into a brief, adjunctive intervention that targets positive affect to reduce suicide risk in youth.

YBIs have shown promise for adult depression. Originating in India, yoga is intended to promote mental, physical, and spiritual well-being. Meta-analyses have documented the positive impact of yoga and other mindful movement interventions on major depression and depressive symptoms. However, other than our pilot work, there are no other RCTs of YBIs for adolescents with clinically significant depression (i.e., a mood disorder diagnosis or significantly elevated depression symptoms). So we are in the process of conducting one.