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Randomized Controlled Trial
. 2014 Jun;53(6):688-96.
doi: 10.1016/j.jaac.2014.04.004. Epub 2014 Apr 18.

Intervention for adolescents with early-onset psychosis and their families: a randomized controlled trial

Ana Calvo  1 , Miguel Moreno  2 , Ana Ruiz-Sancho  3 , Marta Rapado-Castro  4 , Carmen Moreno  5 , Teresa Sánchez-Gutiérrez  5 , Celso Arango  5 , María Mayoral  5
Affiliations
Randomized Controlled Trial

Intervention for adolescents with early-onset psychosis and their families: a randomized controlled trial

Ana Calvo et al. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2014 Jun.

Erratum in

  • J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2015 Dec;54(12):1066

Abstract

Objective: The present study aims to assess the efficacy of a structured psychoeducational group intervention for adolescents with early-onset psychosis and their families. The intervention was implemented in parallel in 2 separate groups by focusing specifically on problem-solving strategies and structured psychosis-related information to manage daily life difficulties associated with the disease, to mitigate crises, and to prevent relapses.

Method: We performed a 9-month, randomized, rater-blinded clinical trial involving 55 adolescent patients with early-onset psychosis and either or both of their parents. A psychoeducational problem-solving group intervention (n = 27) was compared with a nonstructured group intervention (n = 28). The primary outcomes were number of hospitalizations, days of hospitalization, and visits to the emergency department. The secondary outcome measures were clinical variables and family environment.

Results: Assessments were performed before and after the intervention. At the end of the group intervention, 15% of patients in the psychoeducational group and 39% patients in the nonstructured group had visited the emergency department (χ² = 3.62, df = 1, p = .039). The improvement in negative symptoms was more pronounced in the psychoeducational group (12.84 [7.87]) than in the nonstructured group (15.81 [6.37]) (p = .039).

Conclusion: A parallel psychoeducational group intervention providing written instructions in a structured manner could help adolescents with early-onset psychosis and their parents to manage crises by implementing problem-solving strategies within the family, thus reducing the number of visits to the emergency department. Negative symptoms improved in adolescents in the psychoeducational group. Clinical trial registration information--Intervention Module AGES (AGES-CM); http://clinicaltrials.gov/; NCT02101372. [corrected].

Keywords: families; group therapy; psychoeducation; psychosis.

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