抑郁症状的的典型特征包括积极情感的丧失、睡眠和饮食障碍、缺乏自我关怀、注意力不集中等。大学生的抑郁症状可能对他们的身体、学业、生活、人际等领域产生负面影响。因此有效干预大学生抑郁症状十分重要。已有的研究中，大部分研究者使用药物疗法或认知行为疗法干预抑郁症状。这两种疗法的有效性都得到了研究的证实，但他们在适用性上各自存在一定的不足。因此，更多的研究者开始关注行为激活疗法，一种干预抑郁症状的有效疗法。行为激活疗法的核心原则是通过激活有效行动进而缓解抑郁症状。这一原则使其干预过程具有短程、结构化、易操作等特点。上述特点增加了行为激活疗法在更广泛的人群中实施的可能性。目前使用行为激活疗法干预大学生抑郁症状的研究尚有不足。因此本研究试图探索行为激活疗法干预大学生抑郁症状的有效性。

研究者采用个案研究的方法，使用行为激活疗法与一名被试L完成8次个体咨询。被试L，男性，大学三年级学生，初评为轻度抑郁症状，排除酒精或药物依赖、认知障碍、双相情感障碍的可能性。被试在干预期间没有接受心理治疗，没有服用抗抑郁药物，否认自杀意念和自杀计划，否认干预前两个月内曾试图自杀。L的主诉是最近一学期经常感到情绪低落、沮丧，进一步导致其做事动机下降，难以集中注意力。上述问题对L的学业、生活和社交造成一定程度的损害。干预由三个阶段组成，分别为识别阶段（1-3次）、 行为激活和障碍排除阶段（4-6次）、结束阶段（7-8次）。识别阶段的主要目标是收集个案基本信息，识别来访者的行为模式，寻找抑郁的恶性循环。行为激活和障碍排除阶段的主要目标是与来访者共同识别重要生活领域和价值观，由此制定行为计划，完成家庭作业，激活健康行为，排除行为障碍。结束阶段的主要目标是总结收获和预防复发。本研究分别使用病人健康问卷（PHQ-9）、行为激活量表(BADS)对研究效果进行评估，评估频率为每周一次，并且在咨询结束一个月后收取追踪数据。

经过8次个体咨询，L的行为激活水平从67分上升到108分，抑郁水平从8分下降到3分，即从轻度抑郁症状调整为无抑郁症状。来访者的健康行为得到激活，行为的动机有所提高，学业和社交受损情况得到明显改善，抑郁症状得到有效缓解。因此，本研究表明行为激活疗法可以缓解大学生的抑郁症状，提高其心理健康水平。

Depressive symptoms encompass a range of typical features of depression, such as loss of positive affect, sleep and eating disorders, lack of self-care, and inattention. Depressive symptoms of college students may negatively affect their physical, academic, life, interpersonal and other areas. Therefore, it is very important to effectively intervene in the depressive symptoms of college students. Among existing interventions, most investigators or clinicians use pharmacotherapy or cognitive behavioral therapy. The effectiveness of these two treatments has been confirmed by research, but they each have certain shortcomings in applicability. As a result, more researchers have begun to focus on behavioral activation therapy, an effective treatment for intervening depressive symptoms. The core principle of behavioral activation therapy is to relieve depressive symptoms by activating effective actions. This principle makes the intervention process short, structured and easy to operate. The above features increase the likelihood that behavioral activation therapy can be implemented in a wider population. At present, there is insufficient research on the use of behavioral activation therapy to intervene in college students' depressive symptoms. Therefore, this study attempted to explore the effectiveness of behavioral activation therapy in intervening depressive symptoms in college students.

Using a case study approach, the researchers completed 8 individual counseling sessions with one subject L using behavioral activation therapy. Subject L, male, a third-year college student, initially rated as mild depressive symptoms, excluding the possibility of alcohol or drug dependence, cognitive impairment, and bipolar disorder. The subjects received no psychotherapy during the intervention period, were not taking antidepressants, denied suicidal ideation and suicidal planning, and denied having attempted suicide within two months prior to the intervention. L's main complaint is that he often feels depressed and depressed in the last semester, which further reduces his motivation to do things and makes it difficult to concentrate. The above problems have caused a certain degree of damage to L's study, life and social interaction. The intervention consisted of three phases, the identification phase (1-3 sessions), the behavioral activation and obstacle removal phase (4-6 sessions), and the end and prognosis phase (7-8 sessions). The main goal of the identification phase is to collect the basic information of the case, identify the behavior pattern of the client, and find the vicious circle of depression. The main goal of the behavioral activation and barrier removal phase is to identify important life areas and values with the client, thereby developing behavioral plans, completing homework assignments, activating healthy behaviors, and eliminating behavioral barriers. The main goals of the end and prognostic phases are to summarize the harvest and prevent recurrence. This study used the Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) and the Behavioral Activation Scale (BADS) to evaluate the research effect. The evaluation frequency was once a week, and the follow-up data was collected one month after the end of the consultation.

After 8 individual consultations, L's behavioral activation level increased from 67 points to 108 points, and the depression level decreased from 8 points to 3 points, that is, adjusted from mild depressive symptoms to no depressive symptoms. The healthy behavior of the client was activated, the motivation of behavior was improved, the academic and social impairment was significantly improved, and the depressive symptoms were effectively relieved. Therefore, this study shows that behavioral activation therapy can effectively relieve the depression symptoms of college students and improve their mental health.