Child and Parent-directed Individualized Psychotherapy (CPIP)

NCT ID: NCT05128669

Last Updated: 2023-06-15

Basic Information

• Recruitment Status: UNKNOWN
• Clinical Phase: NA
• Total Enrollment: 200 participants
• Study Classification: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Start Date: 2020-07-21
• Study Completion Date: 2025-03-20

Brief Summary

With CPIP the investigators opt for a manualized modular psychotherapy designed especially to meet the needs of children with internalizing disorders that suffered or still suffer from emotional or physiological neglect. CPIP helps the child to resolve rigid conflictual internal representations/ working models by individually focusing on caregiver-child interaction, mentalization based interventions with children and caregivers and working with the therapeutic transference relationship with the child and the caregiver. Treatment sessions will take place at CAP.

Clinical hypotheses:

The main hypothesis of the study is that for children with internalizing disorders and experience of emotional / physical neglect, CPIP & enhanced caregiving support (intervention group) is superior in reducing internalizing symptoms compared to ECS alone (control group). Potential predictors of treatment response, as family context, gender and age, will be examined. Furthermore, the investigators will investigate possible treatment effects and mediating mechanisms, especially changes in DNA methylation profiles, HPA-dysregulation, cognitive-emotional styles, and emotional availability.

Additional elements: If the child additionally suffers from traumatic experiences of violence or sexual abuse, elements of Tf-CBT will be applied. Furthermore, elements of Interaction Guidance and ABC including video feedback will be applied in joint caregiver-child sessions. Treatment fidelity: Following the previous study, manualization, careful training and regular supervision will strive to ensure high treatment fidelity which will be systematically assessed in a random sample of two videotaped sessions per family.

Detailed Description

Setting: Typically, 25 weekly sessions of approximately 50 minutes; in the clinician's office, family home, or child protection service office (due to the limited compliance expected from some families to attend regular therapeutic sessions). When conducting treatment sessions in the home environment, principles of established and evidence-based home visitation programs, like SafeCare or Nurse-Family Partnership Program will be applied.

Therapeutic elements: Reflective developmental guidance, modeling appropriate emotional availability, understanding of the meaning and function of the symptoms within relationships together with the caregivers, identifying and labeling feelings and actions, creation of a "neglect narrative" (parallel to a trauma narrative) and conflict interpretation together with the child.

Three treatment phases: Session 1-5: Building of a working alliance, assessment of family/individual problems and resources, focus formulation; Sessions 6-20: Therapeutic work on the focus; Session 21 to 25: Detachment of the working alliance, summarizing, concluding, fostering future development.

Therapeutic strategy: The inner conflict which is currently most pressing and actively determining the child's symptoms as well as jeopardizing mental development in the present will be identified and formulated during the first 5 sessions together with the caregivers and the child (therapeutic "focus"). The following treatment phase concentrates on the jointly identified problem/conflict that has been aggregated in the focus formulation. The setting will vary (number of parent-only, child-only, and caregiver-child sessions) as a function of whether the focus predominantly lies in the interpersonal (caregiver-child interaction) or intrapersonal realm.

Control Condition: Enhanced Caregiving Support (ECS) will serve as the control condition provided by the Allgemeine Sozialdienst (ASD - Community Social Services) of the two participating cities. According to German law (§ 27 SGB VIII), caregivers are entitled to receive caregiving support (CS; "Hilfe zur Erziehung") in cases where the child's wellbeing is jeopardized. CS generally includes supportive work across all child-relevant systems (family, neighborhood, (pre-)school, peer group etc.). Appointed social workers and educators provide parenting counseling, family support, and intensive child support according to an individualized helping plan ("Hilfeplan"). In more severe cases, children are placed in (temporary) day-care centers, children's homes, foster families etc. Within the context of the trial, the investigators will appoint an additional multi-systemic case manager to each case to enhance the quality of case coordination (enhanced CS; ECS). All children and families will receive ECS. the investigators will compare children receiving CPIP plus ECS to children receiving ECS only.

Conditions

Child Neglect; Internalizing Disorder

Study Design

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

Study Groups

CPIP+ECS

CPIP is an innovative Child-Parent Individualized Psychotherapy, consisting of 25 sessions, designed by the PI and his clinical collaborators for children with internalizing disorders in the aftermath of childhood neglect. It is informed by Short-term Psychoanalytic Child Therapy (PaCT), elements of psychoanalytic parent work, videofeedback and Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP) and. CPIP supports the child-caregiver relationship and helps the child to resolve rigid conflictual internal representations/working models and improve interpretative and mentalizing techniques.

ECS (Enhanced Caregiving Support) is described in other arm.

Group Type: EXPERIMENTAL

CPIP

Intervention Type: PROCEDURE

CPIP is an innovative Child-Parent Individualized Psychotherapy, consisting of 25 sessions, designed by the PI and his clinical collaborators for children with internalizing disorders in the aftermath of childhood neglect. It is informed by Short-term Psychoanalytic Child Therapy, elements of psychoanalytic parent work, videofeedback and Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP) and. CPIP supports the child-caregiver relationship and helps the child to resolve rigid conflictual internal representations/working models and improve interpretative and mentalizing techniques.

ECS

Intervention Type: PROCEDURE

Enhanced Caregiving Support (ECS) will serve as the control condition provided by the Allgemeine Sozialdienst (ASD - Community Social Services) of the two participating cities. According to German law (§ 27 SGB VIII), caregivers are entitled to receive caregiving support (CS; "Hilfe zur Erziehung") in cases where the child's wellbeing is jeopardized. CS generally includes supportive work across all child-relevant systems (family, neighborhood, (pre-)school, peer group etc.). Appointed social workers and educators provide parenting counseling, family support, and intensive child support according to an individualized helping plan ("Hilfeplan"). In more severe cases, children are placed in (temporary) day-care centers, children's homes, foster families etc. Within the context of the trial, we will appoint an additional multi-systemic case manager to each case to enhance the quality of case coordination (enhanced CS; ECS). All children and families will receive ECS.

ECS only

Enhanced Caregiving Support (ECS) will serve as the control condition provided by the Allgemeine Sozialdienst (ASD - Community Social Services) of the two participating cities. According to German law (§ 27 SGB VIII), caregivers are entitled to receive caregiving support (CS; "Hilfe zur Erziehung") in cases where the child's wellbeing is jeopardized. CS generally includes supportive work across all child-relevant systems (family, neighborhood, (pre-)school, peer group etc.). Appointed social workers and educators provide parenting counseling, family support, and intensive child support according to an individualized helping plan ("Hilfeplan"). In more severe cases, children are placed in (temporary) day-care centers, children's homes, foster families etc. Within the context of the trial, we will appoint an additional multi-systemic case manager to each case to enhance the quality of case coordination (enhanced CS; ECS). All children and families will receive ECS.

Group Type: ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

ECS

Intervention Type: PROCEDURE

Enhanced Caregiving Support (ECS) will serve as the control condition provided by the Allgemeine Sozialdienst (ASD - Community Social Services) of the two participating cities. According to German law (§ 27 SGB VIII), caregivers are entitled to receive caregiving support (CS; "Hilfe zur Erziehung") in cases where the child's wellbeing is jeopardized. CS generally includes supportive work across all child-relevant systems (family, neighborhood, (pre-)school, peer group etc.). Appointed social workers and educators provide parenting counseling, family support, and intensive child support according to an individualized helping plan ("Hilfeplan"). In more severe cases, children are placed in (temporary) day-care centers, children's homes, foster families etc. Within the context of the trial, we will appoint an additional multi-systemic case manager to each case to enhance the quality of case coordination (enhanced CS; ECS). All children and families will receive ECS.

Interventions

CPIP

CPIP is an innovative Child-Parent Individualized Psychotherapy, consisting of 25 sessions, designed by the PI and his clinical collaborators for children with internalizing disorders in the aftermath of childhood neglect. It is informed by Short-term Psychoanalytic Child Therapy, elements of psychoanalytic parent work, videofeedback and Child-Parent Psychotherapy (CPP) and. CPIP supports the child-caregiver relationship and helps the child to resolve rigid conflictual internal representations/working models and improve interpretative and mentalizing techniques.

Intervention Type: PROCEDURE

ECS

Enhanced Caregiving Support (ECS) will serve as the control condition provided by the Allgemeine Sozialdienst (ASD - Community Social Services) of the two participating cities. According to German law (§ 27 SGB VIII), caregivers are entitled to receive caregiving support (CS; "Hilfe zur Erziehung") in cases where the child's wellbeing is jeopardized. CS generally includes supportive work across all child-relevant systems (family, neighborhood, (pre-)school, peer group etc.). Appointed social workers and educators provide parenting counseling, family support, and intensive child support according to an individualized helping plan ("Hilfeplan"). In more severe cases, children are placed in (temporary) day-care centers, children's homes, foster families etc. Within the context of the trial, we will appoint an additional multi-systemic case manager to each case to enhance the quality of case coordination (enhanced CS; ECS). All children and families will receive ECS.

Intervention Type: PROCEDURE

Eligibility Criteria

Inclusion Criteria

• Age 3 to 8
• Sufficiently stable psychosocial situation of the child for potential participation in the study
• Written informed consent of the patient's parents or legal guardian
• Informed oral consent of children (from 6 years)
• Release from professional secrecy Teacher / educator
• Positive pre-screening for internalizing symptoms

• Confirmation that the child's psychosocial situation is sufficiently stable to participate in the study
• physical/emotional neglect
• DSM-5 internalizing disorder

Exclusion Criteria

• limited language skills of children or caregivers (caregiver: if communication severely impeded despite translators)
• unresolved custody dispute
• concurrent intensive psychotherapy of >3 months duration
• participation of the child in other interventional trials

• IQ < 70
• autism or psychosis/schizophrenia spectrum disorder of the child

• Minimum Eligible Age: 3 Years
• Maximum Eligible Age: 8 Years
• Eligible Sex: ALL
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No

Sponsors

Technische Universität Dresden

OTHER

Sponsor Role: collaborator

Medical School Hamburg

OTHER

Sponsor Role: collaborator

Technical University of Munich

OTHER

Sponsor Role: collaborator

University of Leipzig

OTHER

Sponsor Role: lead

Responsible Party

Lars White

Principal Investigator

Responsibility Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Principal Investigators

Kai von Klitzing, Prof. Dr.

Role: STUDY_CHAIR

University of Leipzig, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

Locations

University of Leipzig - Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

Leipzig, , Germany

Site Status: RECRUITING

Klinikum Rechts der Isar der Technischen Universität München- Lehrstuhl für Sozialpädiatrie

München, , Germany

Site Status: RECRUITING

Countries

Germany

Central Contacts

Lars Otto White, Dr. phil

Role: CONTACT

LarsOtto.White@medizin.uni-leipzig.de

+49 (0) 341 - 9724018

Facility Contacts

Kai von Klitzing, Prof. Dr.

Role: primary

Volker Mall, Prof.Dr.

Role: primary

Other Identifiers

01KR1802A

Identifier Type: OTHER_GRANT

Identifier Source: secondary_id

AMIS-II-RCT

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id