Group Psychotherapy for Adolescents With Substance Use

October 28, 2016 updated by: Chang Gung Memorial Hospital

Effectiveness of Family-based Group Psychotherapy for Adolescents With Illicit Drug Use

Background: Substance abuse among children and adolescents is an important public health issue in Taiwan. Kaoshiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital and Taiwan Kaoshiung Juvenile and Family Court will cooperate in a counseling program for adolescents with illicit drug abusers in 2013, to perform a mandatory 10-week family-based group psychotherapy.

Aims: This study aims (1) to investigate the effectiveness of the family-based group psychotherapy for adolescents with illicit drug abusers and their parents; (2) to identify whether the counseling program is effective for preventing the adolescents from relapse of substance abuse.

Expected Results: The investigators expect that (1) group psychotherapy may involve comprehensive benefits for adolescents with illicit drug abusers, by improving the changes in adolescents' substance-craving symptoms and behavioral problems, and reducing stress of their parents; (2) this counseling program is effective for preventing the adolescents from relapse of substance abuse; (3) the findings in this study will not only demonstrate empirical evidence of treatment effectiveness for adolescents with illicit drug abuse, but will also provide useful clues for future implementation of policy making.

Study Overview

Status

Unknown

Conditions

Intervention / Treatment

Detailed Description

  1. The investigators plan to recruit 200 adolescents (=< 20 years) with illicit drug abusers and their parents (100 of intervention group and 100 of comparison group).
  2. The intervention group consists of youths that participate in a program that combines a weekly 10-session out-patient motivational enhancement psychotherapy (MEP) program for youths with an additional weekly 10-session parenting skill training (PST) program for their guardians.
  3. The comparison group consists of youths that receive standard supervision by the court. All participants were followed up for a maximum of three years.
  4. The assessments for adolescents and their parents will be taken at pre- and post-treatment, using the Adolescents' Behavior-problem Scale, the Craving Beliefs Questionnaire, the Family APGAR, the Parenting Stress Index-Short From (PSI/SF) and the Chinese Health Questionnaire (CHQ).
  5. The information of adolescents' relapse of substance abuse will be collected by Kaoshiung Juvenile and Family Court.

Study Type

Interventional

Enrollment (Anticipated)

200

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

  • Taiwan
      • Kaohsiung, Taiwan
        • Recruiting
        • Liang-Jen Wang
        • Contact:

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

12 years to 20 years (Child, Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

  • The adolescents with illicit drug age between 12 to 20.
  • One of their parents can attend the counseling program.

Exclusion Criteria:

  • The adolescents or their parents can't attend the program.

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: Intervention group
The youths in the intervention group will participate in a weekly 10-session out-patient motivational enhancement psychotherapy (MEP) program. In addition to this, these youths' caregivers will be referred to simultaneously take part in a weekly 10-session out-patient parenting skill training (PST) program at Kaohsiung Chang Gung Memorial Hospital.
Behavioral: Group psychotherapy

Motivational enhancement psychotherapy (MEP) for Youths:

The participating youths have to attend one session a week for 10 weeks of a group program for relapse prevention based on motivational enhancement ideas and led by two experienced psychologists from the hospital.

Parenting skill training (PST) for Caregivers:

The PST program for the youths' caregivers also consist of 10 weekly, 120-minute sessions that were led by a senior consulting psychologist.
Active Comparator: Comparison group
The comparison group consists of substance-using adolescents that receive only standard supervision by the protection officers in Taiwan's Kaohsiung Juvenile and Family Court. The protection officers provide the adolescents with moral education, as well as counseling in their work or studies.
Behavioral: Standard supervision
The standard supervision by the protection officers in Taiwan's Kaohsiung Juvenile and Family Court provide the adolescents with moral education, as well as counseling in their work or studies.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure
Measure Description
Time Frame
Substance-use relapse
Time Frame: Longitudinal follow-up for 3 years
Relapse is defined as positive urine test for any substance within the follow-up period.
Longitudinal follow-up for 3 years
Academic or social status
Time Frame: Longitudinal follow-up for 3 years
The academic or social outcome is categorized into as attending school, being employed, or being a dropout/unemployed.
Longitudinal follow-up for 3 years

Collaborators and Investigators

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

Sponsor

Chang Gung Memorial Hospital

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

July 1, 2013

Primary Completion (Anticipated)

July 1, 2017

Study Completion (Anticipated)

July 1, 2017

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

October 12, 2016

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

October 12, 2016

First Posted (Estimate)

October 14, 2016

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

October 31, 2016

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

October 28, 2016

Last Verified

June 1, 2013

More Information

Terms related to this study

Keywords

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 104-1729C

Plan for Individual participant data (IPD)

Plan to Share Individual Participant Data (IPD)?

NO

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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