Effectiveness of Narrative Exposure Therapy Among Refugee Children and Adolescents

How to Help War-affected Children and Adolescents: the Role of Memory Functions in Therapeutic Intervention

This study aims to understand how war trauma affects children's and adolescents' memory functions and mental health, and whether Narrative Exposure Therapy is effective in enhancing optimal memory functions and alleviating mental health problems. The study analyzes the mental health and cognitive and emotional healing mechanisms of therapeutic intervention among war-affected children and adolescents.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Treatment as Usual; Narrative Exposure Therapy
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Treatment as Usual; Behavioral: Narrative Exposure Therapy

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 50
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Finland
  • Helsinki, Finland
    • Centre for Torture Survivors
  • Tampere, Finland
    • Family Counselling Centre of the City of Tampere
  • Tampere, Finland
    • Psychiatric Clinic for Traumatized Children at Tampere University Hospital

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 5 years to 13 years (Child)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: No
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

• 9-17 years old
• has spent some part of her/his life living in a country where organized violence was taking place, or at a refugee camp
• suffers from significant stress symptoms thought be trauma-related

Exclusion Criteria:

• acute psychosis
• intellectual disability

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: Narrative Exposure Therapy; For the intervention group receiving Narrative Exposure Therapy treatment, the intervention will last for approximately three months and include 10-12 weekly sessions of 60-90 minutes. The course of the intervention will follow the NET manual (Schauer et al., 2011).	Behavioral: Narrative Exposure Therapy
Active Comparator: Treatment as Usual; For the TAU control group, participants will receive the usual care for posttraumatic stress symptoms currently offered by each unit.	Behavioral: Treatment as Usual

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Time Frame
Post-traumatic Stress as measured by Revised Impact of Event Scale	9 months
Depression as measured by Depression Self-Rating Scale for Children	9 months
Psychological Distress as measured by Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire	9 months
Resilience as measured by Child and Youth Resilience Measure	9 months
Cognitive Performance as measured by Working Memory Test Battery for Children	9 months

Secondary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Time Frame
Quality of Traumatic Memory as measured by Trauma Memory Quality Questionnaire	9 months
Trauma Related Cognitions as measured by Children's Post Traumatic Cognitions Inventory	9 months
General functioning of autobiographical memory as measured by reported life events	9 months

Other Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Time Frame
Subjective distress during therapy measured by Subjective Units of Distress Scale	9 months
Peritraumatic Dissociation measured by Peritraumatic Dissociative Experiences Questionnaire	once, at baseline

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Tampere University

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• Kangaslampi S, Garoff F, Peltonen K. Narrative exposure therapy for immigrant children traumatized by war: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial of effectiveness and mechanisms of change. BMC Psychiatry. 2015 Jun 17;15:127. doi: 10.1186/s12888-015-0520-z.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start (Actual): November 1, 2014
• Primary Completion (Actual): April 1, 2018
• Study Completion (Actual): April 1, 2018

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: April 15, 2015
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 22, 2015
• First Posted (Estimate): April 23, 2015

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (Actual): October 17, 2018
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: October 15, 2018
• Last Verified: October 1, 2018

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Other Study ID Numbers: 275804