This study aims to examine the feasibility and acceptability of a brief intervention, involving a imagery-competing task, remotely delivered to parents who are currently experiencing persistent intrusive traumatic memories at least one month following their child's discharge from intensive care.
This is a feasibility study of a brief intervention, involving a visuospatial intervention (i.e. an imagery-competing task), remotely delivered to parents who are currently experiencing persistent intrusive traumatic memories at least one month following their child's discharge from the paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) or neonatal intensive care (NICU). This study seeks to examine the feasibility and acceptability of delivering this brief intervention remotely with parents currently experiencing persistent intrusive traumatic memories at least one month following their child's discharge from PICU or NICU. The study aims to estimate recruitment, retention, outcome completion and adherence rates, assess acceptability, and in addition to explore the preliminary effect of the intervention on primary and secondary outcomes. Specifically, this study seeks to answer the following questions: 1. How willing are parents, who are currently experiencing persistent intrusive traumatic memories, at least one month following their child's discharge from PICU or NICU, to take part in this brief intervention delivered remotely? 2. How willing are parents to remain in the study until completion at follow up? 3. How willing are participants to complete all outcome measures? 4. How acceptable is this intervention to parents when delivered remotely? 5. Having taken part in the study, how willing are these parents to give consent for their child to take part in this intervention? 6. Having completed the intervention, how willing are parents to be part of a randomised control group? 7. Does this intervention help reduce the number of intrusive memories participants experience, as well as symptoms of anxiety, depression and PTS from baseline to follow-up? Please note: After approximately six months into recruitment the enrolment target of 20 participants had not been achieved, only 12 participants had consented to take part in the study by this time. After reflecting on the recruitment process it was decided to include parents whose child had either been admitted to paediatric intensive care (PICU) or neonatal intensive care (NICU). The rationale for this was that research evidence demonstrates that admission to either a NICU or a PICU is similarly stressful for parents (Seideman et al., 1997) and many commonalities exist between them, "most notably the similarity of parent and staff experiences and the coexisting medical, psychological and developmental needs of babies and children" (Atkins \& Syed-Sabir, 2022, p.9). Parents who have had a child in intensive care can experience intrusive memories whether that be paediatric or neonatal intensive care. Therefore, in light of this, it seemed worthwhile to see if explicitly seeking to recruit parents whose child had been admitted to PICU or NICU would improve participant enrolment. On 10th March 2023, after receiving approval from the research ethics committee, the study documents were amended (e.g., advert, participant information sheet etc.) to explicitly extend to parents who have had a child in intensive care to include parents whose child has been in either PICU or NICU.
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Allocation
NA
Purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Enrollment
17
Session 1: A memory cue followed by playing the computer game "Tetris" (e.g. on own smartphone) with mental rotation instructions. Options to engage in self-administered/guided booster sessions per intrusive memory.
Queen's University Belfast
Belfast, United Kingdom
Number of intrusive memories of traumatic event(s) - change in number of intrusive memories is being assessed.
Number of intrusive memories of traumatic event(s) recorded by participants in a brief diary daily for 7 days.
Time frame: At baseline for 7 days, After session 1 for 7 days, and 7 days prior to follow-up at one month post intervention.
Impact of Events Scale-Revised (IES-R; Weiss and Marmar, 1997)
Self-report measure that assesses subjective distress after a traumatic event (with reference to study event\[s\]) in the last week. Here we include the intrusion subscale (8 items) and the avoidance subscale (8 items). Items are rated on a 5-point scale ranging from 0 ("not at all") to 4 ("extremely"). Subscale scores are calculated for the Intrusion or Avoidance items summed (ranging from 0 to 32 each). Higher scores indicate worse outcome.
Time frame: Baseline, 1 week follow-up, and 1 month follow-up
Intrusive memory ratings
It is a 9-item a self-report questionnaire which assesses a number of intrusive memories characteristics. It is adapted from an ongoing trial of the intervention in the UK (GAINS study; ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04992390)
Time frame: 1 week follow-up and 1 month follow-up
Patient Health Questionnaire-9 item (PHQ-9; Kroenke et al., 2001)
It is a 9-item self-report measure of depressive symptoms.
Time frame: Baseline, 1 week follow-up, and 1 month follow-up
Generalised Anxiety Disorder-7 item questionnaire (GAD-7; Spitzer et al., 2006)
It is a 7-item self-report measure of generalised anxiety symptoms.
Time frame: Baseline, 1 week follow-up, and 1 month follow-up
This platform is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Always consult a qualified healthcare professional.
Work and Social Adjustment Scale (WSAS; Mundt et al., 2002)
It is is a 5-item scale measuring an individual's ability to function in five domains of everyday life; work, home management, social leisure activities, private leisure activities and close relationships.
Time frame: Baseline, 1 week follow-up and 1 month follow-up