Youth Metacognitive Therapy Feasibility Trial

University of Manchester95 enrolled

Overview

One in eight children and young people (CYP) suffer mental health problems needing support or treatment and 5% have more than one such problem. The effects can be major, affecting CYP emotionally and functionally, impacting progress at school, relationships with others and increasing long term risk of mental health problems. Parents, schools, policy makers and the NHS often struggle to find the best way to help, especially within their limited budgets. The UK Government and the NHS have highlighted the need to improve mental health in CYP. The most common treatment is cognitive behavioural therapy; however this can be time consuming, needs to be delivered over many weeks, must focus on the most upsetting problem first and is not very effective. One way to overcome this is to evaluate a group therapy that can treat multiple mental health problems at once. This new treatment is called Metacognitive Therapy (MCT). The aim of the study is to see if participating in a randomized trial of Group MCT is a feasible and acceptable treatment for CYP suffering with anxiety, stress, depression, or a combination in comparison to usual care. This allows us to test key questions about recruitment and drop-out rates, test the protocol, and gain information about MCT including training and supervision needs of clinicians and the experience of patients receiving it.

Study Type

INTERVENTIONAL

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

SINGLE

Enrollment

Conditions

Child Mental Disorder

Interventions

Treatment as usual: ControlBEHAVIORAL

Treatment usually delivered in service that may include but is not limited to cognitive behaviour therapy, exposure, eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing , behaviour therapy, family therapy.

Group Metacognitive Therapy (Group-MCT): ExperimentalBEHAVIORAL

Group metacognitive therapy (Group-MCT) focuses on developing adaptive control of worry, repetitive negative thinking and attention and modifies beliefs that maintain unhelpful thinking patterns. Treatment is 6 to 8 weekly sessions delivered by two trained mental health professionals, guided by a treatment manual, lasting approximately 90 minutes each session.

Eligibility

Sex: ALLMin age: 11 YearsMax age: 16 Years

Medical Language ↔ Plain English

Inclusion Criteria: * Seeking treatment for emotional disorder symptoms (i.e. generalized anxiety disorder, panic disorder, agoraphobia, post-traumatic stress disorder, obsessive compulsive disorder, social anxiety and/or depression). * Native fluency in English language * Medication permitted but must be stabilised for 6 weeks. Exclusion Criteria: * Presence of significant risk or safeguarding concerns * Head injury/organic impairment * Formal diagnosis or under assessment for Autism Spectrum Disorder or Attention Deficit-Hyperactivity Disorder * Eating Disorder

Outcomes

Primary Outcomes

Revised Children Anxiety and Depression Scale - Short Version (RCADS)

Youth self-report questionnaire measuring total anxiety, total depression and total anxiety and depression. This is a feasibility study and therefore it is not primarily powered to detect a difference (change in scores). The principal aim is to test the feasibility of a study using. Here we are testing the feasibility of using the measures (RCADS), therefore the measures will be assessed by monitoring descriptive data and the analysis of complete data once follow up has been completed. Specifically, range in scores, number of complete measures, proportion of missing data. Analyses of outcomes (change) will focus on descriptive statistics and confidence intervals for treatment effects.