Indicated Prevention Transdiagnostic Intervention for Adolescents At High Risk of Emotional Problems
Overview
- Phase
- N/A
- Intervention
- Not specified
- Conditions
- Anxiety Disorders and Symptoms
- Sponsor
- University of Jaén
- Enrollment
- 68
- Locations
- 3
- Primary Endpoint
- Factors associated with adolescents' mental health
- Status
- Completed
- Last Updated
- 3 years ago
Overview
Brief Summary
Emotional disorders (anxiety and/or depression) are severely undiagnosed and untreated despite being among the most common mental disorders, particularly at a young age. Half of all mental disorders begin by age 14; three-quarters by age 24, which makes adolescence a particularly crucial stage. In adolescence, prodromal signs of mental disorders and even full-blown clinical conditions often remain undetected, undiagnosed and untreated. However, there is an absence of evidence-based protocols to reach at high risk youth for developing emotional disorders. There is an urgent need for a paradigm shift by developing intervention protocols to early identify and treat vulnerable adolescents, thus preventing them from developing severe mental disorders later on in life. Mental health indicated prevention is key to helping at-high risk adolescents thrive before emotional disorder evolves. To cover this gap, PROCARE-I is conceptualized as a modularized indicated preventive programme for adolescents aged 12 to 18 years, adapting UP-A protocol with author's permission and supervision. Adolescents will be allocated to a 2-arm intervention trial, delivered as a group, as telehealth format as a result of Covid19 restrictions imposed by government. The PROCARE-I protocol aims to enhance protective factors that will eventually lead to lasting positive effects for adolescents. PROCARE-I will combine quantitative analysis, with special attention to vulnerable groups in a sex/gender disaggregated way. The PROCARE-I project is expected to have a far impact ultimately contributing to preventing and reducing the prevalence of emotional disorders in the young. The outcomes of PROCARE-I will contribute to identifying and treating vulnerable adolescents at high risk for emotional mental at an early stage, before they incur personal, societal and economic cost. PROCARE-I will be culturally-adapted and implemented as a multicenter Randomized-Controlled Trial (RCT). PROCARE-I will be designed to be an acceptable, scalable, and sustainable indicated prevention program.
Detailed Description
The general objective of PROCARE-I is to design, implement and evaluate a indicated 8-session preventive group intervention for adolescents aged 12-18 at high risk of emotional disorders like anxiety and depression. The intervention will be based on the Unified protocol for transdiagnostic treatment of emotional disorders in adolescents (UP-A), already proven as effective in the US, but adapted with indicated prevention purposes in Spain thanks support of main author of the protocol (Prf. Ehrenreich-May). It will be culturally-adapted and designed to be an acceptable, scalable, and sustainable indicated prevention program. METHODOLOGY The methodology was designed in order to achieve the project's objective of treating vulnerable adolescents at high risk of developing emotional disorders. PROCARE-I working plan will be divided into 3 interconnected stages. Firstly, in order to identify adolescents at high risk of suffering emotional disorders (anxiety and depression), the following self-reports will be administered to adolescents: Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) to evaluate adolescents at-risk of emotional disorders, and the Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale-30 (RCADS-30) will screen for presence/absence of emotional symptomatology. Finally, ADIS5-C/P will be administered to rule-out presence of anxiety and/or mood disorders. Valuing voices from stakeholders and end-users, the investigators will focus on the study of the influence of the above described variables. Third, the investigators will test a indicated preventive intervention using multi-center randomized control trial in Spain. Special attention will be paid to particularly vulnerable young people, such as disabled, refugees, immigrants, or minorities (national, ethnic, linguistic, religious, and sexual). IMPACT The need to include mental health among the first priorities of the public health agenda has been increasingly recognized over the past decades. The outcomes of the PROCARE-I project will have a far impact ultimately contributing to preventing and reducing the prevalence of mental disorders in the young. These problems are wide-ranging, long-lasting, and enormous and impose a range of costs on individuals, families and communities. The outcomes of the project, if successful, will have far reaching implications, contributing to identifying and treating adolescents at high risk for emotional mental disorders at an early stage, before they incur personal, societal and economic cost.
Investigators
LuisJoaquin Garcia-Lopez
Full Professor
University of Jaén
Eligibility Criteria
Inclusion Criteria
- •written informed consent from adolescent and legal guardian
- •able to attend prevention modules on his/her own
- •language competence
- •Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire ""probable diagnoses"
- •score above cut-off for Revised Child Anxiety and Depression Scale-30
- •absence of anxiety and/or mood disorders
Exclusion Criteria
- •in- or outpatient
- •concomitant psychological/psychiatric treatment
- •acute suicidality
- •general medical contraindications that hamper attendance to prevention modules
- •Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire "unlikely" or "possible diagnoses"
- •presence of mood and/or anxiety disorders
Outcomes
Primary Outcomes
Factors associated with adolescents' mental health
Time Frame: Baseline to 7 months after start of interventions
The study's primary outcome was self-reported risk and protective factors level of emotional disorders as assessed by Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). Total scores range from 0 to 50. Higher scores mean a worse outcome.
Self-reported anxiety and mood symptomatology
Time Frame: Baseline to 7 months after start of interventions
The study's primary outcome was self-reported anxiety and mood symptomatology as assessed by Revised Child Anxiety Depression Scale (RCADS-30). Total scores range from 0 to 90. Higher scores mean a worse outcome
Absence of emotional disorders
Time Frame: Baseline to 7 months after start of interventions
The study's primary outcome was absence of any emotional disorders over the long-term measured by the ADIS-5-C/P
Secondary Outcomes
- Health-related quality of life(Baseline to 7 months after start of interventions)
- Psychological flexibility(Baseline to 7 months after start of interventions])
- Emotional regulation(Baseline to 7 months after start of interventions])
- Economic evaluations(Baseline to 7 months after start of interventions)