Youth Metacognitive Therapy Feasibility Trial

Summary

One in eight children and young people (CYP) suffer mental health problems needing support or treatment and 5% have more than one such problem. The effects can be major, affecting CYP emotionally and functionally, impacting progress at school, relationships with others and increasing long term risk of mental health problems. Parents, schools, policy makers and the NHS often struggle to find the best way to help, especially within their limited budgets. The UK Government and the NHS have highlighted the need to improve mental health in CYP.

The most common treatment is cognitive behavioural therapy; however this can be time consuming, needs to be delivered over many weeks, must focus on the most upsetting problem first and is not very effective. One way to overcome this is to evaluate a group therapy that can treat multiple mental health problems at once. This new treatment is called Metacognitive Therapy (MCT).

The aim of the study is to see if participating in a randomized trial of Group MCT is a feasible and acceptable treatment for CYP suffering with anxiety, stress, depression, or a combination in comparison to usual care. This allows us to test key questions about recruitment and drop-out rates, test the protocol, and gain information about MCT including training and supervision needs of clinicians and the experience of patients receiving it.

Conditions

• Child Mental Disorder
• Anxiety Disorders
• Depression

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Treatment as usual: Control

Treatment usually delivered in service that may include but is not limited to cognitive behaviour therapy, exposure, eye movement desensitisation and reprocessing , behaviour therapy, family therapy.

BEHAVIORAL

Group Metacognitive Therapy (Group-MCT): Experimental

Group metacognitive therapy (Group-MCT) focuses on developing adaptive control of worry, repetitive negative thinking and attention and modifies beliefs that maintain unhelpful thinking patterns. Treatment is 6 to 8 weekly sessions delivered by two trained mental health professionals, guided by a treatment manual, lasting approximately 90 minutes each session.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• National Institute for Health Research, United Kingdom

  collaborator OTHER_GOV

• Greater Manchester Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Manchester

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Adrian Wells · University of Manchester

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

TREATMENT

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

11 Years

Max Age

16 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2022-05-23

Primary Completion

2023-10-19

Completion

2024-04-04

Countries

• United Kingdom

Study Locations