Supporting Carers of Children and Adolescents With Eating Disorders in Austria (SUCCEAT)

Medical University of Vienna

Status: Completed

Conditions: Mental Health

Treatments: Behavioral: Workshop Group; Behavioral: Internet-based support group

Study type: Interventional

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT02480907

FA765A0304

Details and patient eligibility

About

The purpose of the "Supporting Carers of Children and Adolescents with Eating Disorders in Austria" (SUCCEAT) - study is to compare Workshop, Internet-based and Conventional Parental Support Groups for carers of chilren and adolescents between 10 and 18 years in a randomized controlled trial for the first time in Austria.

Full description

According to NICE guidelines, eating disordered patients should be managed on an outpatient basis. This challenge seems to put a heavy burden on most caregivers. Schmidt and Treasure (2006) argued that obsessive compulsive personality traits, emotional avoidance, pro-anorectic beliefs and responses of close others like dysfunctional communication styles impair the outcome. The construct of expressed emotions reflects on the amount of criticism, hostility and emotional over-involvement expressed by relatives of psychiatric patients towards them. A special program for parents is developed to equip caregivers with knowledge and skills to change maintaining factors and therefore improve the patient's outcome. Furthermore coping strategies are provided to help carers to reduce their burden. We start a randomized controlled trial comparing two interventions with a conventional group. We compare Workshops (Intervention Group 1), Internet-based (Intervention Group 2) and Conventional (Control Group) Carers´ Support Groups. Before starting the intervention (T0, baseline), at the end of the intervention (T1) and 1 year after the intervention (T2, follow up) assessments will be conducted via questionnaires and interviews. Parents of 48 children and adolescents within the age group of 10-17 years suffering from anorexia or bulimia nervosa will be involved in each group, resulting in an overall sample size of 144. The investigators aim is to equip parents with knowledge and skills in order to support their children's recovery, prevent relapse and improve their own wellbeing. The long term goal is to provide low-threshold, cost-effective, time-efficient and superregional support for parents in the future.

Enrollment: 144 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 10 to 18 years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• children and adolescents aged 10-18, who suffer from anorexia or bulimia nervosa and their primary caregivers

Exclusion criteria

• no written informed consent possible due to intelligence or no willingness by parents to include minor

Trial design

Primary purpose: Treatment

Allocation: Randomized

Interventional model: Parallel Assignment

Masking: None (Open label)

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144 participants in 3 patient groups

Workshop Group

Active Comparator group

Description:

Parents of \~ 40 children and adolescents within the age group of 10-18 years suffering from anorexia or bulimia nervosa will be involved in the workshop support group for parents for a period of three months, including a written manual, a DVD (Digital Video Disc) with additional information and weekly workshops. Over the course of three months, parents will participate at the 8 workshop sessions and get the manual to read and the DVDs to use at home to illustrate workshop contents with examples and video clips.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Workshop Group

Internet-based support group

Active Comparator group

Description:

Parents of \~ 40 children and adolescents within the age group of 10-18 years suffering from anorexia or bulimia nervosa will be involved in the Internet-based support group for parents, including material from the manual and the DVD and additional information available online within a structured program. Over the course of three months, parents will get access to the 8 support sessions online with the instruction to work out the program at home. Additionally email support is offered after completing each session.

Treatment:

Behavioral: Internet-based support group

Control group - TAU

No Intervention group

Description:

Parents of \~ 40 children and adolescents within the age group of 10-18 years suffering from anorexia or bulimia nervosa will get treatment as usual and take part in conventional parental intervention groups.