Reducing Aggression in Children and Adolescent on an Inpatient Unit

Gonzalez-Heydrich, Joseph, M.D.

Status and phase: Completed; Phase 1

Conditions: Aggression; Anger

Treatments: Behavioral: ACT with RAGE-Control

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT01377948

X10-06-0278

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of this study is to determine whether Anger Control Therapy (ACT) with Regulate and Gain Emotional-Control (RAGE-Control) is a feasible behavioral therapy to provide on a pediatric inpatient psychiatric unit.

Full description

Aggression and disruptive behavior are the most common reasons for child and adolescent inpatient psychiatric hospitalization. Aggressive children and adolescents who merit admission to inpatient psychiatric hospitals for treatment typically display dramatic problems with self-regulation that interfere with global adaptive functioning. The goal of this study is to teach self-regulation techniques by combining Cognitive Behavioral Therapy with a biofeedback video game in effort to motivate patients to learn and practice these coping skills, which will translate to decreased feelings of anger and aggression while hospitalized.

Enrollment: 20 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 8 to 17 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• consecutive admissions to the psychiatric inpatient unit between the ages of 9 and 17 years of age
• who were not expected to begin or undergo a change >25% to their antipsychotic or mood stabilizing medications
• elevated levels of anger as demonstrated by baseline score on the State Trait Anger Expression Inventory - Child and Adolescent (STAXI-CA) combined State-anger and Trait-anger score greater than 30.

Exclusion criteria

• Inability to consent, comprehend, and effectively participate in the study.
• Gross cognitive impairment due to mental retardation, dementia, or intoxication.
• Started on an antipsychotic or mood stabilizing drug within 5 days of beginning the study

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: N/A

Interventional model: Single Group Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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20 participants in 1 patient group

ACT with RAGE-Control

Other group

Description:

all subjects are assigned to this arm. This is an open feasability proof of concept trail with a single experimental group with all subjects receiving the intervention being studied.

Treatment:

Behavioral: ACT with RAGE-Control