Regulating Emotions Through Adapted Dialectical Behavior Skills for Youth (READY-Nepal) (READY-Nepal)

January 15, 2019 updated by: Brandon A Kohrt, MD, PhD

Using Adapted Dialectical Behavior Skills as Mental Health Prevention in Post-Earthquake Nepal: READY-Nepal Protocol for a Pilot Feasibility and Acceptability Trial

Published research on the development of mental health symptomatology among adolescents has expanded in recent years and indicates the presence of a growing public health concern. The 2015 earthquakes in Nepal are a risk factor for increased psychological distress across all age groups. Prior studies have also demonstrated high chronic risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STBs) among adolescents in Nepal and throughout South Asia. Despite the need for mental health promotion interventions in Nepal, there is a lack of psychological treatments for suicide prevention that have been rigorously evaluated in Nepal. To address this gap, a trans diagnostic, emotion -focused mental health promotion intervention (Regulating Emotions through Adapted Dialectical behavior skills for Youth in Nepal; READY-Nepal) was developed for delivery in school-based settings. A pilot quasi-experimental trial utilizing a wait-list control group will be used to evaluate the feasibility and acceptability of the intervention in a cohort of school -going adolescents in the Kathmandu Valley. Qualitative methodology will be used to augment quantitative findings via exploration of gender differences in perception and uptake of the program, program feasibility and acceptability, as well as changes in coping skills and explanatory models of stress between baseline and follow- up. This pilot study will aid in modifying the intervention to inform the development of a larger, adequately powered cluster randomized trial (CRT) of READY-Nepal.

Study Overview

Status

Status

Indicates the current recruitment status or the expanded access status.
Completed

Conditions

Conditions

The disease, disorder, syndrome, illness, or injury that is being studied. On ClinicalTrials.gov, conditions may also include other health-related issues, such as lifespan, quality of life, and health risks.

Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.

Detailed Description

SETTING: The study will be conducted in school settings in earthquake -affected areas throughout the Kathmandu Valley. Due to an aggregation of factors including political and environmental trauma, these areas are at high risk for the development and continuation of mental health problems.

STUDY DESIGN: Regulating Emotions through Adapted Dialectical behavior skills for Youth in Nepal (READY-Nepal) is a pilot quasi-experimental trial. All students between the ages of 13 to-17 enrolled in a secondary school in one of two earthquake -affected districts in the Kathmandu Valley will be eligible for participation. After enrollment, classes will be assigned to either READY-Nepal or a wait-list control condition. Groups will be gender-stratified due to concerns around stigma and confidentiality found in similar trials in Nepal and other low- and middle-income countries (LMIC). Because of the higher potential for contamination effects (i.e., transmission of skills or related intervention content) at the individual level, whole classroom sections will either be assigned to the experimental or waitlist conditions. Because of the pilot nature of this preliminary feasibility and acceptability trial, the sample size will not be powered for inference testing. Results from this pilot study will be used to identify parameters necessary for an appropriately powered cluster- randomized trial (CRT) of the intervention.

INTERVENTIONS: READY-Nepal is a 10 -session, classroom- based skills training program designed to promote positive mental health in addition to supporting resilient responses in trauma- exposed adolescents. The modularized, emotion-focused intervention was informed by principles of Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) and was designed to augment and generalize Nepali adolescents' emotion regulation abilities during current or future stressful circumstances. READY-Nepal is divided into 5 components, and includes both didactic and experiential instruction in skills related to mindfulness, stress tolerance, emotional awareness and regulation, validation of self and others, and mastery of interpersonal relationships. The program was designed with a flexible delivery format in mind, in order to increase its dissemination potential in LMIC like Nepal. The program was developed from a prior, more intensive version of the intervention that was culturally adapted and piloted with self -destructive women in rural Nepal. READY-Nepal will be delivered by local Nepali clinical counselors trained by a US psychiatrist and clinical psychology doctoral student with comprehensive DBT training. Program facilitators will participate in weekly ongoing supervision with the original program developers.

PARTICIPANTS: School- going adolescents (ages 13- to 17) residing in earthquake-exposed areas in Kathmandu Valley are the intended direct beneficiaries of READY-Nepal. For this feasibility and acceptability pilot, additional qualitative component participants will include school teachers and primary caregivers of a subset of participating adolescents.

PLANNED ANALYSES Statistical analyses: Primary and secondary outcomes of interest will be summarized descriptively and visually over time for both study arms. Total and validated domain- specific scores will be evaluated for each instrument. Outcomes will be analyzed for within -group factor and intervention as a between- group factor. Preliminary estimates of within- and between -group variances and the intra-class correlation coefficient (ICC) of participant outcomes will be estimated and used to determine sample size calculations for a future, adequately powered cluster -randomized trial.

Qualitative analyses: qualitative research methodology and commercial software (NVIVO 9) will be used to analyze data from focus group discussions and in depth interviews. This method will consist of (1) reading each transcript multiple times for content, then (2) open coding transcripts for data on key themes surrounding the concepts of intervention effectiveness, stress -based explanatory models, and gender- moderated skills uptake. These coding segments will be combined into axial coding categories. The same, iterative process will continue for the remaining transcripts until a final set of emergent themes is presented. Checks for inter-rater reliability using kappa coefficients will also be performed.

ETHICS & RESEARCH GOVERNANCE Consent: Permission for conducting the program in each school will be obtained from school principals. For adolescent participants, research assistants will obtain participant as well as primary caregiver consent. Research assistants will also consent all adult participants participating in qualitative evaluation. All participants will have the opportunity to ask questions related to the process or to study elements. Subjects can also request a virtual or in person meeting with either the researchers or the principal investigator if additional questions arise at any point during the study.

Study Type

Study Type

Describes the nature of a clinical study. Study types include interventional studies (also called clinical trials), observational studies (including patient registries), and expanded access.
Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

Enrollment

The number of participants in a clinical study. The "anticipated" enrollment is the target number of participants that the researchers need for the study.
200

Phase

Phase

The stage of a clinical trial studying a drug or biological product, based on definitions developed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The phase is based on the study's objective, the number of participants, and other characteristics. There are five phases: Early Phase 1 (formerly listed as Phase 0), Phase 1, Phase 2, Phase 3, and Phase 4. Not Applicable is used to describe trials without FDA-defined phases, including trials of devices or behavioral interventions.
  • Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

This section provides the contact details for those conducting the study, and information on where this study is being conducted.

Study Locations

  • Nepal
      • Kathmandu, Nepal
        • Transcultural Psychosocial Organization

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

The key requirements that people who want to participate in a clinical study must meet or the characteristics they must have. Eligibility criteria consist of both inclusion criteria (which are required for a person to participate in the study) and exclusion criteria (which prevent a person from participating). Types of eligibility criteria include whether a study accepts healthy volunteers, has age or age group requirements, or is limited by sex.

Ages Eligible for Study

13 years to 17 years (Child)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  1. Students in the intervention and control arms are eligible for enrollment if they are between the ages of 13-17. Recruitment will attempt to balance gender and age distribution. All adolescent participants will need to be formally enrolled in a participating school.
  2. Adults participating in qualitative evaluation must be fluent in Nepali. Parents are eligible if their child is an active participant in the program, and teachers are eligible if their students are current participants.

Exclusion Criteria:

1. There are no additional exclusion criteria.

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Design Details

  • Primary Purpose: Other
  • Allocation: Non-Randomized
  • Interventional Model: Parallel Assignment
  • Masking: None (Open Label)

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm

Participant Group / Arm

A group or subgroup of participants in a clinical trial that receives a specific intervention/treatment, or no intervention, according to the trial's protocol.
Intervention / Treatment

Intervention / Treatment

A process or action that is the focus of a clinical study. Interventions include drugs, medical devices, procedures, vaccines, and other products that are either investigational or already available. Interventions can also include noninvasive approaches, such as education or modifying diet and exercise.
Experimental: READY-Nepal
Skills groups based on dialectical behavior therapy principles delivered over 10-12 weeks in a classroom format.
Behavioral: READY-Nepal
Regulating Emotions through Adapted Dialectical behavior skills for Youth in Nepal (READY-Nepal) is a brief (10-session), emotion-focused intervention targeting prevention and reduction of trans diagnostic problems related to emotion regulation. The culturally adapted program is divided into 5 modules, and includes both didactic and experiential instruction in skills related to mindfulness, stress tolerance, emotional awareness and regulation, validation of self and others, and mastery of interpersonal relationships.
Other Names:
  • Adolescent Emotion Dysregulation Prevention Intervention
No Intervention: Waitlist Control
Adolescent participants assigned to the control condition will be placed on a waitlist for future enrollment in READY-Nepal. After primary data collection has ceased, those assigned to the control arm will receive the identical READY-Nepal intervention delivered in the experimental condition.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Primary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, the planned outcome measure that is the most important for evaluating the effect of an intervention/treatment. Most clinical studies have one primary outcome measure, but some have more than one.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in Emotion Regulation
Time Frame: 1-week post-intervention
Adolescent emotion regulation will be assessed using the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale (DERS). The DERS has been transculturally adapted in Nepal for use with this population.
1-week post-intervention

Secondary Outcome Measures

Secondary Outcome Measures

In a clinical study's protocol, a planned outcome measure that is not as important as the primary outcome measure for evaluating the effect of an intervention but is still of interest. Most clinical studies have more than one secondary outcome measure.
Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Change in Anxiety
Time Frame: 1-week post-intervention
Adolescent anxiety is assessed with the Nepali version of the Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI). This instrument has been clinically and culturally validated for use in Nepal.
1-week post-intervention
Change in Individual Coping
Time Frame: 1-week post-intervention
Generalization of coping skills use will be assessed through the Dialectical Behavior Therapy Ways of Coping Checklist (DBT-WCCL). In Nepal, the instrument has been transculturally adapted and tested with a sample of suicidal and self-harming women.
1-week post-intervention
Change in Depression
Time Frame: 1-week post-intervention
Depression symptoms will be measured using a subset of items from the Nepali version of the Primary Care Depression Screening (PCDS). The PCDS has been clinically and culturally validated for use in Nepal.
1-week post-intervention
Change in Post-Traumatic Stress
Time Frame: 1-week post-intervention
Symptoms of post-traumatic stress will be assessed using a subset of items from the Nepali version of the Child PTSD Symptom Scale (CPSS). The CPSS has been clinically and culturally validated for use in Nepal.
1-week post-intervention
Change in Self-Validation
Time Frame: 1-week post-intervention
Adolescent self-validating behaviors will be assessed using the Self-Validating & Invalidating Questionnaire (SVSI-Q). This instrument has been culturally adapted for use in Nepal.
1-week post-intervention
Change in Adolescent Functioning
Time Frame: 1-week post-intervention
Adolescent functional impairment will be measured using the Nepali version of the Child Functioning Impairment Scale (CFI). The CFI has been clinically and culturally validated for use in Nepal.
1-week post-intervention
Change in Resilience
Time Frame: 1-week post-intervention
Adolescent resilience will be measured using items adapted from the Resilience Scale. This adapted scale has been clinically and culturally validated in Nepal.
1-week post-intervention
Change in Implicit Self-Esteem
Time Frame: 1-week post-intervention
Implicit self-esteem will be assessed using a computer-based Implicit Association Test (IAT). The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (RSES) will be used as the standardized comparison tool for the IAT.
1-week post-intervention
Change in Suicidal and Self-Harming Behaviors
Time Frame: 1-week post-intervention
Suicidal ideation, suicide, and non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) will be assessed via a 7-item scale including Depression Self-Rating Scale (DSRS) item #10, in addition to daily diary cards completed by participating adolescents.
1-week post-intervention

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

Sponsor

The organization or person who initiates the study and who has authority and control over the study.
Brandon A Kohrt, MD, PhD

Investigators

Investigators

A researcher involved in a clinical study. Related terms include site principal investigator, site sub-investigator, study chair, study director, and study principal investigator.
  • Principal Investigator: Brandon Kohrt, MD, PhD, Duke University

Publications and helpful links

The person responsible for entering information about the study voluntarily provides these publications. These may be about anything related to the study.

General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start (Actual)

Study Start

The actual date on which the first participant was enrolled in a clinical study. The "anticipated" study start date is the date that the researchers think will be the study start date.
July 1, 2016

Primary Completion (Actual)

Primary Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention to collect final data for the primary outcome measure. Whether the clinical study ended according to the protocol or was terminated does not affect this date. For clinical studies with more than one primary outcome measure with different completion dates, this term refers to the date on which data collection is completed for all the primary outcome measures. The "anticipated" primary completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the primary completion date for the study.
June 30, 2018

Study Completion (Actual)

Study Completion

The date on which the last participant in a clinical study was examined or received an intervention/treatment to collect final data for the primary outcome measures, secondary outcome measures, and adverse events (that is, the last participant's last visit). The "anticipated" study completion date is the date that the researchers think will be the study completion date.
June 30, 2018

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

First Submitted

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submitted a study record to ClinicalTrials.gov. There is typically a delay of a few days between the first submitted date and the record's availability on ClinicalTrials.gov (the first posted date).
January 3, 2019

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The date on which the study sponsor or investigator first submits a study record that is consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. The sponsor or investigator may need to revise and submit a study record one or more times before NLM's QC review criteria are met. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
January 15, 2019

First Posted (Actual)

First Posted

The date on which the study record was first available on ClinicalTrials.gov after National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review has concluded. There is typically a delay of a few days between the date the study sponsor or investigator submitted the study record and the first posted date.
January 16, 2019

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

Last Update Posted

The most recent date on which changes to a study record were made available on ClinicalTrials.gov. There may be a delay between when the changes were submitted to ClinicalTrials.gov by the study's sponsor or investigator (the last update submitted date) and the last update posted date.
January 16, 2019

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator submitted changes to a study record that are consistent with National Library of Medicine (NLM) quality control (QC) review criteria. It is the responsibility of the sponsor or investigator to ensure that the study record is consistent with the NLM QC review criteria.
January 15, 2019

Last Verified

Last Verified

The most recent date on which the study sponsor or investigator confirmed the information about a clinical study on ClinicalTrials.gov as accurate and current. If a study with a recruitment status of recruiting; not yet recruiting; or active, not recruiting has not been confirmed within the past 2 years, the study's recruitment status is shown as unknown.
January 1, 2019

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

Other Study ID Numbers

Identifiers or ID numbers other than the NCT number that are assigned to a clinical study by the study's sponsor, funders, or others. These numbers may include unique identifiers from other trial registries and National Institutes of Health grant numbers.
  • Pro00071881

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

Yes

IPD Plan Description

Individual participant data will be made available upon request after publication of primary outcome results.

IPD Sharing Time Frame

Will be shared within 60 months of trial completion

IPD Sharing Access Criteria

Contact principal investigator

IPD Sharing Supporting Information Type

  • Study Protocol
  • Statistical Analysis Plan (SAP)
  • Informed Consent Form (ICF)

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

Clinical Trials on Mental Disorders

Clinical Trials on READY-Nepal

Search Similar Trials

Sponsors and Collaborators

Medical Conditions

Drug Interventions

Conditions

Rare Diseases

Drug Interventions

Dietary Supplements

Sponsor/Collaborators

Locations

Cookie Settings

We use cookies to ensure that we give you the best experience on our website. For more details carefully read our Privacy and Cookies Policy. ...>>>You can change your preferences or withdraw your consent at any time by deleting the cookies from your website or computer as described in the policy. Please accept it and choose your preferences by ticking the corresponding boxes in the "Manage Settings" section below. Please carefully read our Terms of Service before you proceed with using any part of this website.
«Manage Settings