Skills for Wellness: Cognitive-behavioural Skills Training for Psychotic-like Experiences, Basic Symptoms, Affective Lability and Anxiety in Youth

Status: Recruiting
Location: See all (2) locations...
Intervention Type: Behavioral
Study Type: Interventional
Study Phase: Not Applicable
SUMMARY

Severe mental illness such as schizophrenia and mood disorders typically develops at a young age and can cause life-long disability. Currently available treatments cannot cure severe mental illness. This makes it important to find ways to prevent severe mental illness in young people before it has a chance to develop. This research study will pilot a new preventive intervention for young people who are at high risk of developing severe mental illness. The investigators will target early preceding factors (the 'antecedents') to severe mental illness which includes anxiety, unusual hearing and visual experiences, the loss of previously acquired abilities, and sudden and unpredictable changes in mood. These antecedents strongly predict an increased risk of developing severe mental illness. They are often impairing and distressing to the individual but can be improved with self-management skills and parent training, and they are present in the individual years before the onset of severe mental illness which makes them an ideal target for early intervention. The goal is to intervene early enough in the young person's life that severe mental illness can be prevented, hopefully leading to a happy, healthy and productive adulthood. The investigators want to test the acceptability and short-term efficacy of this new preventive intervention.

Eligibility
Participation Requirements
Sex: All
Minimum Age: 9
Maximum Age: 21
Healthy Volunteers: f
View:

• FORBOW (Families Overcoming Risks and Building Opportunities for Well-Being) participant between 9-21 years old

• Meet criteria for one or more antecedents (psychotic like experience, basic symptoms, anxiety or affective lability)

Locations
Other Locations
Canada
Nova Scotia Health Authority
ENROLLING_BY_INVITATION
Halifax
Nova Scotia Health Authority
RECRUITING
Halifax
Time Frame
Start Date: 2014-03-22
Estimated Completion Date: 2028-06-30
Participants
Target number of participants: 360
Treatments
Experimental: maCBT
Multimodal Antecedent-focussed Cognitive-behavioural Training (maCBT). This integrated model focuses on normalisation of the unusual experiences, their re-appraisal, exploring helpfulness of current coping, and developing a repertoire of strategies to decrease the impact of these experiences on the young person's life. The maCBT follows a manual describing obligatory and optional therapeutic elements, proposed list of modules, outline of a therapeutic session, and the integrated cognitive model. The model and techniques are adapted to an age range of 9 to 17 years, with more visual material and child friendly language options for the younger part of the age range (9-12) and more teen-relevant and interpersonal content options for the older part of the age range (13-17). The intervention will be delivered in 8 to 16 one-hour sessions in an individual format. Sessions will be initially weekly, and then spaced out to once every two weeks in the latter stages of the intervention.
No_intervention: Comparison
Naturalistic comparison arm: No intervention offered, no intervention prohibited.
Related Therapeutic Areas
Sponsors
Collaborators: Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Nova Scotia Health Research Foundation
Leads: Nova Scotia Health Authority

This content was sourced from clinicaltrials.gov