Resources to Enhance the Adjustment of Children (REACH)

University of Pittsburgh

Status: Completed

Conditions: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder; Oppositional Defiant Disorder; Conduct Disorder

Treatments: Other: No intervention; Behavioral: No-Booster; Other: Treatment As Usual; Behavioral: Booster Treatment

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT00820001

R01MH057727

Details and patient eligibility

About

This continuation study evaluates the long-term outcomes of multimodal, modular interventions with early-onset behavior disordered children and innovative methods to promote the maintenance and extension of treatment effects relating to ODD and CD. All participants originally enrolled in the "parent" clinical trial are being followed and those who initially received clinic or community based intervention from a study clinician were randomly assigned to either Booster or No-booster treatment condition. The treatment-as-usual (TAU) and Healthy Control participants were also followed through long-term follow-up assessments paralleling clinically referred participants. The study examines the short and long-term efficacy of booster treatment on clinical outcome, contextual variables, and service satisfaction/use.

Full description

Child Conduct problems (CP), as found in Conduct Disorder (CD) and Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), are common and chronic. Although laboratory research studies have yielded promising initial outcomes, follow-up effects are often not studied and, when they are evaluated, are often limited. Maintenance procedures have been generally administered after acute treatment in the form of periodic booster sessions to enhance long-term outcomes (Whisman, 1990). Although the conceptualization and application of maintenance therapies has been described frequently with adults, there is limited information regarding the role of maintenance treatment in child and adolescent psychotherapy (see Eyeberg, 1998). A few studies of booster treatments have reported the return of behavioral improvements (Baer, Williams, Osnes, & Stokes, 1984; McDonald & Budd, 1983; Patterson, 1974) and other improvements in conduct-disordered children (Lochman, 1992) and depressed adolescents (Clark et al., 1999), suggesting potential benefits in extending the durability of treatment effects. What is not yet known is the extent to which patients respond positively to a booster (maintenance) treatment condition that is administered after long-term (i.e., three-year) follow-up, one that is designed to reduce recurrence of behavioral dysfunction and the development of new forms of dysfunction during adolescence. The justification for this additional intervention derives from our initial findings and the young age of our sample, which, in most instances, has yet to traverse the period of heightened risk for delinquency.

Literature reviews highlight the importance of addressing at least three primary objectives in understanding the clinical response and long-term adjustment of children with ODD or CD. First, there is a need to document empirically the long-term effects of both specialty treatments and routine services during repeated follow-up assessments in an effort to document the maintenance of all initial treatment gains (Eyberg et al., 1998). Our preliminary findings suggesting the presence of both similarities and differences in the initial outcomes of our two specialty treatments (Community vs. Clinic protocols) supports the conduct of a long-term evaluation in order to determine whether these effects continue or change.

Second, our initial findings underscore the importance of determining the extent to which booster treatment sessions help to promote long-term maintenance or produce long-term preventive effects on some of the more common sequelae of ODD and CD. Booster treatment may be needed to deflect such children from unfolding trajectories toward increased antisocial behavior and multi-system impairments (Loeber et al., 1993). Thus, efforts to promote the long-term outcomes of follow-up in this population must be evaluated in an effort to understand the degree to which they show improvements in serious clinical dysfunction (recovery from Disruptive Behavior Disorders (DBD)) and/or show reductions in the development of new forms of dysfunction (deviant and delinquent activities) that may place these children at-risk for other adverse adolescent outcomes. The young age of this patient sample at the start of this competing continuation(8-16 yrs) may make it easier to demonstrate preventive effects.

Finally, the availability of only modest empirical evidence provides a compelling argument for evaluating potential predictors of each of the above-mentioned long-term follow-up outcomes based on a comprehensive battery of psychosocial (e.g., child, parent, and family adjustment) and biological (e.g., testosterone, cortisol) measures obtained upon study intake and treatment termination. Key predictors of treatment response include lower levels of child, parent, and family dysfunction, barriers to treatment, and SES (Kazdin, 1995; Kazdin & Wassell, 2000). We will also evaluate the role of contextual or other life changes in understanding treatment effects over the follow up period. Among the important contextual variables to be evaluated include changes in parental and family functioning, peer relationships, and school adjustment. Clearly, these variables may influence continued antisocial behavior at this young age. Thus, we will examine how contextual factors affect how well treatment effects hold as well as the real world impact of treatment on various life changes.

Enrollment: 254 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 6 to 11 years old

Volunteers: Accepts Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion and exclusion criteria

All participants were enrolled in the initial "parent" study and criteria for initial enrollment included:

Inclusion Criteria:

1. males or females with an age of 6-11 years,
2. a DSM-IV diagnosis of CD or ODD,
3. residence with at least one parent/guardian;
4. intellectual level no less than two SD's below age norms; and
5. parent consent for participation.

Exclusion Criteria:

1. concurrent individual or family participation in a treatment program directed towards the child's disruptive disorders,
2. current psychosis, bipolar disorder, or MDD marked by significant vegetative signs,
3. suicidality with a plan or homicidality; or
4. substance abuse or an eating disorder.

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: Single Blind

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254 participants in 4 patient groups

Acute Treatment Protocol Booster

Experimental group

Description:

Child participants in this arm were initial participants enrolled in the parent study and randomized to receive the specialty treatment from study clinicians in either the clinic or community setting. In this continuation study, the participants were enrolled at the 36 month assessment and randomized to participate in the booster dose of treatment. The treatment provided in this arm includes specific booster treatment based on the 8 modules of the initial treatment study. Saliva samples were also collected 2 times in the lab and 2 times at home (once at bedtime, once at wake-up time) per initial voluntary saliva protocol at each timepoints to measure endocrine levels.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Booster Treatment

Acute Treatment Protocol No-Booster

Experimental group

Description:

Child participants in this arm were initial participants enrolled in the parent study and randomized to receive the specialty treatment from study clinicians in either the clinic or community setting. In this continuation study, the participants were enrolled at the 36 month assessment and randomized to participate in assessments only thus not receiving any additional booster treatment. Saliva samples were collected 2 times in the lab and 2 times at home (once at bedtime, once at wake-up time) per initial voluntary saliva protocol at each timepoints to measure endocrine levels.

Treatment:

Behavioral: No-Booster

Treatment As Usual

Active Comparator group

Description:

Child participants in this arm were initial participants enrolled in the parent study in the clinically referred Treatment As Usual comparison group. These participants were initially enrolled in treatment services with identified providers and received treatment services as provided in that community agency. In this continuation study, the participants were enrolled at the 36 month assessment and participated in the ongoing follow-up assessments only. Saliva samples were collected 2 times in the lab and 2 times at home (once at bedtime, once at wake-up time) per initial voluntary saliva protocol at each timepoints to measure endocrine levels.

Treatment:

Other: Treatment As Usual

No Intervention Healthy Comparison

Other group

Description:

The Healthy Control subjects enrolled initially in the parent study are incorporated in a related project designed to evaluate the role of biological measures in differentiating antisocial and normal children. All Healthy Control participants were initially matched to cases in the clinical sample (both the acute treatment and the clinically referred Treatment as Usual).

Treatment:

Other: No intervention