Depression in Adolescents with ASD: A Pilot RCT of a Group Intervention.

Santomauro et al. (2016) ran a tiny pilot RCT. They gave autistic teens a group CBT course for depression.

They flipped a coin to put kids in the group or on a wait-list. Then they tracked mood scores for a few weeks.

The teens liked the group and kept showing up, but their depression scores barely budged. Only a small trend showed on one measure.

In short, the therapy was safe and doable, yet it did not beat the wait-list.

Laugeson et al. (2014) tested almost the same group CBT two years earlier. They saw clear drops in depression that lasted nine months. Why the gap? Their kids were young adults, not teens, and they skipped the coin flip. That weaker design may have painted a rosier picture.

Perihan et al. (2020) pooled twenty-three CBT anxiety trials in autistic youth. They found solid gains, hinting that CBT works better for anxiety than for low mood in this group.

Oshima et al. (2023) kept the CBT frame but added autism education. Their ACAT program lifted teens’ self-knowledge, not depression. Together these studies show CBT is handy, yet you need tweaks to hit mood goals.

If you run groups for autistic teens, do not bank on plain CBT to cut depression. Add parent modules, stretch the length, or fold in behavioural activation. Track each teen closely and be ready to pivot if mood stays flat.