RecruitingACTRN12618001601224

Single Session Treatment for Specific Phobias in Pre-School Aged Children

One-Session Treatment for Specific Phobias in Pre-School Children: Improving access and long-term mental health outcomes

Sponsor

A/Prof Lara Farrell

Enrollment

208 participants

Start Date

Oct 9, 2018

Study Type

Interventional

Conditions

Specific Phobia

Summary

This study aims to treat young children between the ages of 3-5 years who are suffering from a specific phobia. Research to date suggests that whilst older children and adults can be successfully treated with a one session psychological treatment for phobias, it is currently unknown whether pre-school aged children will benefit and have long lasting effects from this intervention. The aim of this study is to engage children in a one session exposure treatment using a play based approach, and compare long term outcomes, relative to two other conditions -- a 6 month waitlist condition (monitoring only), as well as an education support intervention. This study is a randomized controlled trial, which means children are randomly assigned to one of three different conditions. The three conditions are; (1) a one-session cognitive-behavioural intervention with play therapy (P-OST); (2) an educational support intervention (EST); and (3) a 6 month waitlist control condition. If children in the EST or waitlist conditions continue to experience their phobia, they will be offered the one session cognitive-behavioural intervention at 12 months follow-up.

Eligibility

Sex: Both males and femalesMin Age: 3 Yearss

Plain Language Summary

Simplified for easier understanding

Specific phobias — an intense, irrational fear of a particular object or situation (such as dogs, needles, or the dark) — are very common in young children. Left untreated, these fears can interfere with daily life and development. In older children and adults, a single intensive session of cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) called One Session Treatment (OST) has been shown to be highly effective. However, we do not yet know whether this works for children as young as three to five years old. This study tests a specially adapted, play-based version of OST called P-OST for pre-school children aged 3 to 5 with a diagnosed specific phobia. Children are randomly assigned to receive P-OST, an education-based support intervention, or a six-month waitlist. Parents are actively involved in the treatment. Researchers will track fear levels, quality of life, and child wellbeing immediately after treatment and at 12-month follow-up. To be eligible the child must be aged 3 to 5 years with a current diagnosis of specific phobia, and the parent must be willing to participate in therapy sessions and assessments. Children with autism (moderate to severe), intellectual disability, speech and language disorders, or who are on psychotropic medication are not eligible. Families in the education support or waitlist group will be offered P-OST at 12 months if the phobia persists.

This summary was AI-generated to explain the trial in plain language. It is not medical advice. Always discuss eligibility with your doctor before enrolling in a clinical trial.

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Interventions

One-session treatment (OST) for specific phobias involves a single 3-hour session of cognitive-behaviour therapy (CBT). CBT involves education, gradual exposure to the child's phobic situation/object, participant modeling, reinforced practice, cognitive challenging through behavioural experiments, and reinforced practice. Given the children receiving treatment are young (3-5 years), play therapy techniques will also be implemented to enhance engagement and motivation for exposure therapy, including child directed free play, use of sentence stems and play sequences to provide eduaction and elicit child's phobic thoughts. Therapy is delivered by trained graduate students who are provisionally registered psychologists and undertaking post-graduate training in clinical psychology training. Treatment occurs at the clinic or in the participants home. The therapy is manualised and treatment procedures standardized across participants, however, tailored to address each child's individual fears and phobia.