Examining the Effectiveness of a Wait List Intervention for the Management of Adolescent Eating Disorders

The current application targets patient education and enablement, implementation of best practices, continuity of care, and an improvement model to improve efficiencies by investigating whether a brief targeted intervention prior to the first formal ED assessment is efficacious in altering outcome and treatment course.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Eating Disorders
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Psychoeducational Workshop and telephone support

Detailed Description

The Eating Disorder Program at the Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO) offers a continuum of treatment options to child and adolescent patients with eating disorders (EDs). Although our own funding has increased in recent years, so too have the number of referrals, which has resulted in lengthy wait times for therapeutic assessments by our team. The current application targets patient education and enablement, implementation of best practices, continuity of care, and an improvement model to improve efficiencies by investigating whether a brief targeted intervention prior to the first formal ED assessment is efficacious in altering outcome and treatment course. It is well known that early recognition and implementation of treatment as soon as possible after the onset of symptoms is protective in eating disorders and leads to better success rates and recovery (APA Treatment Guidelines for EDs). It is hoped that the outcome of this study will influence the way in which centers look to address the ongoing issue of lengthy wait times in hopes of offering cost-effective interventions that ultimately improve patient outcomes. By offering an added level of support to families whose referral has been initiated, we hope to ease the burden of primary care providers and increase their satisfaction as it relates to patient safety concerns and complex case management.

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 51
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Canada
  • Ontario
    • Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, K1H 8L1
      • Children's Hospital of Eastern Ontario

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 10 years to 17 years (Child)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• medical stability at time of referral
• completed referral to the Eating Disorders Program

Exclusion Criteria:

• patients deemed medically unstable are triaged urgently and not eligible for study inclusion

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

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

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
Experimental: Waitlist Group; The intervention involves completion of a single workshop, provision of psychoeducational materials, and regular telephone support with a specially trained nurse-coordinator to parents of youth on our waiting list, within a month of our receiving the referral.	Behavioral: Psychoeducational Workshop and telephone support; The intervention involves completion of a single workshop (delivered by a psychiatrist and adolescent health physician), provision of psycho educational materials, and regular telephone support with a specially trained nurse-coordinator to parents of youth on our waiting list.
No Intervention: Standard of Care; These patients continue to receive the standard of care while awaiting formal assessment.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Time Frame
Investigate whether a wait list intervention for patients and families who are on a wait list, improves patient presentation at the time of formal assessment, as well as 6-months post-assessment	18 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Time Frame
Evaluate the impact that a wait list intervention group workshop has on caregiver knowledge, stress, and self-efficacy pertaining to eating disorders and their treatment	12 months

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: University of Ottawa
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Mark Norris, MD, CHEO; Principal Investigator: Wendy Spettigue, MD, CHEO

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: December 1, 2009
• Primary Completion (Actual): December 1, 2012
• Study Completion (Actual): December 1, 2012

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: January 15, 2010
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: January 15, 2010
• First Posted (Estimate): January 18, 2010

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Estimate): May 12, 2016
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: May 10, 2016
• Last Verified: May 1, 2016

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: anorexia nervosa; bulimia nervosa; EDNOS
• Additional Relevant MeSH Terms: Mental Disorders; Feeding and Eating Disorders
• Other Study ID Numbers: 09/27E