Facilitating improvements in young people’s social relationships to prevent or treat depression: there’s an app for that

Dear Editor,

I am writing in support of Filia and colleagues’ recent narrative review on empirically supported interventions that aim to prevent or treat depression in young people by targeting their relationships [1]. I agree with the central findings of this review, which assert that relationships present an effective therapeutic target for preventing and treating depression in youth. The review reported that young people preferred online approaches due to the accessibility and destigmatised nature of internet technology, particularly for minority groups and reluctant help-seekers. Notably, the authors exposed a disconnect between the therapy approaches young people considered important for relationships and those that have been evaluated.