Coping Kids: Early Intervention for Anxiety and Depression (TIM)

Regionsenter for barn og unges psykiske helse

Status: Completed

Conditions: Depression; Anxiety

Treatments: Behavioral: TAU; Behavioral: Coping Kids

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT02340637

228846/H10

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of this study is to provide knowledge regarding the effect of early intervention and prevention on the development of anxiety and depression in children. The focus of the intervention is to reduce symptoms of anxiety and depression and help children develop skills to enhance self-esteem in order to improve life quality. Gender and ethnicity will be studied as moderating factors. Primary care givers will be trained in the use of evidence based methods for children with internalizing difficulties. Children in need will be identified and receive improved services, based on international standards. Active collaboration will be established nationally between three Centers for child and adolescent mental health (RKBU/RBUP) and internationally with Philip C. Kendall at the Temple University in Philadelphia and Kevin Stark at University of Texas at Austin.

Primary aims are to examine if an indicated group and school based program, Coping Kids, is more effective than treatment as usual (TAU) in reducing high levels of symptoms of both anxiety and depression among 8-12 year old schoolchildren, and if the the effects are stable over 12 months.

Enrollment: 873 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 8 to 13 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Children at the intervention schools indicating a symptom level of, at minimum, one standard deviation above mean on anxiety and/or depression on self-report measures will be offered participation in an intervention group

Exclusion criteria

• Children who for different reasons may not benefit from a group-process intervention (e.g. mental retardation) will be considered individually and the reasons for exclusion will be documented in the Consort flow-chart.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Prevention

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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873 participants in 2 patient groups

Coping Kids

Experimental group

Description:

A Program for Managing Anxiety and Depression (P.C Kendall et al., 2013) is a newly developed group intervention targeting children aged 8 to 13 years who experience difficulty with symptoms of anxiety, depression, or both. The program is designed as an indicated prevention intervention to reduce the symptom levels and reduce the likelihood of the development of an anxiety disorder and/or depression. The youth-focused sessions are designed for implementation in school settings, and the program includes parent group meetings. All groupleaders participate in a three days training, followed by supervision. Manuals and workbooks are provided by the project. In addition is the same presentation as in TAU offered to the schools.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Coping Kids

TAU

Active Comparator group

Description:

The teachers and school-nurses in the control schools will conduct treatment as usual (TAU).The project offers a 2,5 hours presentation to the schools, providing general information about the research study, the prevalence of emotional disorders and how to handle emotional disorders in treatment as usual. No materials are provided by the project.

Treatment:

Behavioral: TAU