View clinical trials related to Childhood Anxiety Disorder.
Filter by:Investigators developed a brief standardized internet-delivered cognitive-behavioral program for treating anxious and depressive symptoms in children and adolescents in the context of COVID-19 pandemics in Brazil. A 2-arm parallel-randomized controlled clinical trial will be conducted to test the efficacy of this program (intervention group), in comparison with a educational-only intervention program based on videos (active control group). 280 children and adolescents (8 to 17 years-old) with clinically significant anxious and/or depressive symptoms will be recruited through internet and social media. They will be randomized either to the intervention (n=140) or active control group (n=140). Participants will be recruited from across the country. The therapeutic program consists of 5 weekly sessions covering the following contents: education on stress reactions, family communication, relaxation and mindful techniques, emotion recognition, management of irritability, behavioral activation, and cognitive restructuring. The educational program consists of 15 videos covering the same content. Participants in the intervention group will also have access to these videos. Both child/adolescent and at least one caregiver will be required to take part in the sessions (and watch the videos). Participants will be assessed at the beginning (baseline; T0) at the end (endpoint; T1), and 30 days after the intervention (follow-up; T2) with standardized questionnaires, through an interview with a blinded investigator. Participants that develop severe symptomatology requiring further support during the intervention (such as psychiatric pharmacological treatment and/or more intensive psychotherapy) will be referred to adequate treatment. During the week prior to the intervention and the first week after its end, adolescents (older than 12 years-old) in both groups with access to a smartphone will be asked to report their momentary mood, emotions, and stress several times a day using the same smartphone app that will deliver the educational content to both groups. Adolescents will also be asked to install a second smartphone application that captures data from the phone sensors to provide proxies on behaviors associated with depression, such as social isolation (by the proximity with other devices, time spent on social media, as well as environmental sound and light) amount of inactivity (by assessing the maximum distance traveled throughout the day), among others.
Anxiety is a common and impairing problem for children. The principle treatment for pediatric anxiety involves facing a child's fears in a stepwise approach through a therapeutic exercise called exposures. While exposures are effective, some feared situations cannot be confronted in a clinician's office (e.g., heights, public speaking, storms). This poses a logistical challenge in treatment that: (1) takes time away from patient care, (2) leads clinicians to rely on imagined exposures, and/or (3) requires families to complete exposures outside of the therapy visits. This creates a burden for clinicians and families, and impedes treatment success. Immersive virtual reality (VR) presents an innovative solution that allows children to face fears without leaving the clinician's office. While VR has been used to distract children during painful medical procedures, it has not been well examined as a primary treatment for pediatric anxiety. This study proposes to examine the effectiveness and acceptability of using immersive VR exposures to treat children and adolescents with specific phobias.
Children with a chronic condition are at a significantly higher risk for anxiety and depression than those without a chronic condition. Asthma is the most common childhood chronic condition. Children with asthma and co-morbid anxiety and/or depression are at risk of poor health outcomes. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effects of a manualized cognitive behavior skills-building intervention on key physical and mental health outcomes in 8 to 12-year old children with persistent asthma and co-morbid anxiety and/or depression. The results of this study will inform a large scale randomized controlled trial to fully test this needed intervention. COPE (Creating Opportunities for Personal Empowerment), developed by Dr. Melnyk, is a manualized intervention that has been implemented with children, adolescents, and young adults. COPE is a cognitive behavior skills-building program based on cognitive behavior theory. Results from previous studies using COPE have shown consistent decreases in anxiety and depression as well as an increase in healthy lifestyle behaviors in youth with elevated anxiety and depressive symptoms in inner city and rural settings, youth with obesity, and teens experiencing chronic recurrent headaches. However, the COPE program has never been adapted and tested with children who have persistent asthma. This study proposes to test an adaptation of this evidence-based program, "COPE for Asthma," with 8 to 12-year-old children with persistent asthma and elevated anxiety and/or depressive symptoms. COPE for Asthma combines components of asthma education with cognitive behavioral skills. This novel adaptation could fill a gap in research by providing a scalable intervention for this highly vulnerable population.