Intensive Short-term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP) in the Emergency Department (ISTDPED)

February 14, 2025 updated by: Nova Scotia Health Authority

Emotion-focused Diagnosis and Treatment of Somatization in the ED

Objective: Somatization of emotions accounts for excess Emergency department (ED) visits. Intensive Short-term Dynamic Psychotherapy (ISTDP) has methods to diagnose and manage somatization. We examined the feasibility, acceptability and effectiveness of ISTDP diagnostic and treatment methods used for patients with repeated ED presentations for medically unexplained physical symptoms (MUS)

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

Herein we report the methods and outcomes of rapidly-accessed, emotion-focused diagnostic and treatment services for patients presenting to the ED with medically unexplained symptoms (MUS). Patients who were assessed and referred by ED physicians will serve as a non-randomized condition controlling for some relevant variables. Our a priori hypotheses were that assessed and treated patients would have a reduction in ED visits and self reported symptoms after this intervention and that controls would have a smaller reduction in ED visits if any.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Actual)

77

Phase

  • 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

  • Canada
    • Nova Scotia
      • Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, B3H 2E2
        • Capital Health

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

Ages Eligible for Study

18 years and older (Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • Unexplained symptoms

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Psychosis, substance abuse, suicidality

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

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm
Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: 1
ISTDP therapy was provided
Behavioral: Intensive Short-term Dynamic Psychotherapy
A brief psychotherapy format
Other Names:
  • Short-term Psychotherapy
No Intervention: 2
People referred but never seen

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Emergency department visits pre and post
Time Frame: 1 year
1 year

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Time Frame
Brief Symptom Inventory
Time Frame: pre and post
pre and post
Patient Satisfaction
Time Frame: post
post

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Nova Scotia Health Authority

Investigators

  • Principal Investigator: Allan A Abbass, MD FRCPC, Capital Health, Canada

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

January 1, 2002

Primary Completion (Actual)

October 1, 2007

Study Completion (Actual)

October 1, 2007

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

February 12, 2008

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

January 30, 2009

First Posted (Estimated)

February 2, 2009

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Actual)

March 25, 2025

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 14, 2025

Last Verified

January 1, 2009

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Other Study ID Numbers

  • AAA01

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.

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