Effect of Family-Based Prevention on Children of Depressed Parents

Children's Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP)

Status and phase

Completed

Phase 1

Conditions

Depression

Treatments

Behavioral: Protecting Families Program (PFP)

Behavioral: Parent Skills Training

Study type

Interventional

Funder types

Other

NIH

Identifiers

NCT00183365

2004-8-3934

DDTR B4-ARD

R34MH071868 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

Details and patient eligibility

About

This study will test the Protecting Families Program, a 10-week prevention program for depressed parents and their pre-teenage children, by comparing the effectiveness of the program versus parent training alone.

Full description

Children of depressed parents are at risk for developing social-emotional problems. Despite the fact that economic hardship is a strong risk factor for both maternal depression and poor child development, little research has been conducted to develop prevention programs for low-income urban families. This randomized, open-label study will address the research gap by developing and pilot-testing the Protecting Families Program (PFP), a family-based, multi-component prevention program. The PFP will offer its services to low-income, urban, depressed parents and their children between the ages of 9 and 14.

Prior to the interventional portion of the study, several small focus groups composed of mental-health care providers and depressed parents will meet. The purpose of these focus groups will be to gather information that will help maximize the effectiveness of the remainder of the study. The interventional phase will compare PFP combined with individual parent training versus parent training alone. Participants will be randomly assigned to one of these two intervention groups. The study will last a total of 10 weeks. Both groups will meet once each week. PFP will include a community meal at the beginning of each session, a parent skills training group, and a concurrent cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) group for the focal child. Participants' symptoms, diagnosis, functional status, family functioning, cognitive factors, and parenting practices will be assessed at the study start date, immediately post-intervention, and 6 months post-intervention.

Enrollment

42 patients

Sex

All

Ages

9+ years old

Volunteers

No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

Parent is currently in treatment
Parent's primary DSM-IV diagnosis is major depressive disorder, dysthymia, or depression not otherwise specified
Parent's child lives with him/her at least part time

Exclusion criteria

Parent has a history or current diagnosis of any psychotic disorder or organic brain syndrome
Parent has history of bipolar or schizoaffective disorder
Parent's IQ is below 70
Parent has any serious medical or neurological disorder or condition that may prevent weekly participation
Parent has chronic pain that may prevent weekly participation
Parent or child is currently suicidal to the extent that it will interfere with outpatient treatment
Parent has a current substance dependence
Child is currently seeking psychological treatment
Child is mentally retarded (determined by school and clinic records)
Child has a clinically severe psychiatric diagnosis