Effectiveness of Emotion Focused Skills Training (EFST)

NCT ID: NCT04885036

Last Updated: 2025-06-05

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: COMPLETED
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 72 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2021-12-08
• Study Completion Date: 2024-12-22

Brief Summary

Comparing the effectivity of an EFST parent supervision intervention against Treatment As Usual in an outpatient specialist health care clinics Family unit.

Detailed Description

The aim of this study is to compare two different treatment conditions and their effect on the mental health of children and adolescent clients.

The first condition is the typical mental health treatment offered when the family is motivated to receive family based interventions in the clinic, thus, treatment as usual TAU as provided by the cliniques family team. A prior study, including data from the same clinic, found that the TAU was associated with good outcomes, identifying effect sizes equal to what is usual in clinical studies

The second condition, labelled: EFST intervention is a parent guidance intervention delivered as a two-day intensive group course followed by six weekly guidance sessions for parents of children with mental health issues.

Both treatment conditions are currently delivered at the clinic and by randomly assigning clients to each of these we will be able to compare the effects they have on the mental health of children and adolescents. The results will possibly guide what treatments to offer in the future.

Conditions

Mental Health Issue

Study Design

• Allocation Method: RANDOMIZED
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Primary Study Purpose: TREATMENT
• Blinding Strategy: NONE

Study Groups

Treatment As Usual

This group will receive treatment as usual within the family unit

Group Type: ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

Treatment As Usual

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

In the TAU condition, the families will receive treatment as usual that does not include EFST treatment. Recent research indicates that this is therapy of high quality carried out by highly qualified staff (Tilden et al., 2020; Zahl-Olsen et al., 2020).The therapists are educated psychologists, psychiatrist and family therapists. The TAU intends to be the best treatment for the child/ family based on the type of symptoms presented and requests from the patient and his/her family. We will measure the intensity and type of therapy given in this condition by information from the therapists and investigate that it did not include the main elements of EFST treatment.

EFST intervention

This group will receive an EFST stand alone treatment consisting of a two days EFST course and 6 individual parental guidance sessions

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

EFST intervention

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

EFST extended intervention is a stand-alone treatment that consist of a two days EFST group course followed by six weekly individual sessions of parental guidance by a licensed EFST therapist. The treatment is given indirectly to the child through work with the parent, thus it might remove or diminish the pressure on the children that suffer from mental health problems to solve their disorder themselves. In this condition a total of 19 hours of EFST treatment is provided.

Interventions

EFST intervention

EFST extended intervention is a stand-alone treatment that consist of a two days EFST group course followed by six weekly individual sessions of parental guidance by a licensed EFST therapist. The treatment is given indirectly to the child through work with the parent, thus it might remove or diminish the pressure on the children that suffer from mental health problems to solve their disorder themselves. In this condition a total of 19 hours of EFST treatment is provided.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Treatment As Usual

In the TAU condition, the families will receive treatment as usual that does not include EFST treatment. Recent research indicates that this is therapy of high quality carried out by highly qualified staff (Tilden et al., 2020; Zahl-Olsen et al., 2020).The therapists are educated psychologists, psychiatrist and family therapists. The TAU intends to be the best treatment for the child/ family based on the type of symptoms presented and requests from the patient and his/her family. We will measure the intensity and type of therapy given in this condition by information from the therapists and investigate that it did not include the main elements of EFST treatment.

Intervention Type: BEHAVIORAL

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Children with a wide range of diagnosis will be included.
• Children in the age group from 6-18 years in the mental health clinic will be invited to participate.
• It is preferred that both parents participate in the EFST treatment.

Exclusion Criteria

• parents need to live with the child at least 50% of the time (if separated or divorced)
• Parents need to speak Norwegian to a degree that they can comprehend the psychoeducation and participate in the sessions without an interpreter.
• parents with ongoing substance abuse or mental states that make participation too difficult, e.g., psychosis, will be excluded.

• Minimum Eligible Age: 6 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 18 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Sponsors

South-Eastern Norway Regional Health Authority

OTHER

Sponsor Role: collaborator

Sorlandet Hospital HF

OTHER_GOV

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Responsibility Role: SPONSOR

Principal Investigators

Rune H Zahl-Olsen, Ph.D

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Senior researcher at Sørlandet Hospital HF

Locations

Sørlandet Hospital HF

Kristiansand, Agder, Norway

Countries

Norway

References

Severinsen L, Stiegler JR, Nissen-Lie HA, Shahar B, Zahl-Olsen R. Effectiveness of emotion focused skills training for parents: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial in specialist mental health care. BMC Psychiatry. 2022 Jul 7;22(1):453. doi: 10.1186/s12888-022-04084-x.

Reference Type: DERIVED

PMID: 35799120 (View on PubMed)

Other Identifiers

SorlandetHF Zahl-Olsen

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id