Mind-Body Skills Groups for Behavioral and Emotional Problems in War-Traumatized Male Adolescents in Gaza

The Center for Mind-Body Medicine

Status: Completed

Conditions: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder; Aggression; Problem Behavior

Treatments: Behavioral: Mind-Body Skills Groups

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT02671487

GT-CMBM-002

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of this study is to determine whether war-traumatize male adolescents with behavioral and emotional problems who participate in mind-body skills groups will have improvement in behavioral and emotional problems, aggression, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, compared to a wait list control group.

Full description

Mind-body skills incorporate meditation, guided imagery, breathing techniques, autogenic training, biofeedback, genograms, and self-expression through words, drawings, and movement in a small group setting. These groups have been used in war-traumatize populations in Kosovo, Gaza and the United States. This study will be investigating the effect of the mind-body skills groups on boys with behavioral and emotional problem at a high school in Gaza to determine if there is improvement in behavioral and emotional problems, aggression, and posttraumatic stress disorder. The results will be compared to a control high school with boys who will not be attending mind-body skills groups and who have experienced similar levels of trauma and also have behavioral and emotional problems.

The mind-body skills groups will be held for 2 hours once a week for 10 weeks and then once a month for 10 months. Measures will be taken at baseline, after the 10 week mind-body skills group program and again at 10 month follow-up.

Enrollment: 115 patients

Sex: Male

Ages: 14 to 17 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Criteria for eligibility for the study will include having a baseline self-reported score of 18 points or higher on the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire which indicates high to very high levels of emotional and behavioral problems

Exclusion criteria

• None

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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115 participants in 2 patient groups

Mind-Body Skills Groups

Experimental group

Description:

Mind-body skills groups will be administered for 2 hours once a week for 10 weeks and then once a month for 10 months.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Mind-Body Skills Groups

Wait List Control

No Intervention group

Description:

No intervention will be administered. Students will have the opportunity to receive the intervention at the end of the study.