We need better long-term intervention programs in mental health care for children and young people with chronic vulnerabilities

Excerpt

This issue of European Child and Adolescent Psychiatry contains an interesting study by Del Giudice and colleagues from the Cologne School of Child and Adolescent Cognitive Behavior Therapy, which describes longer-term effects of a social competence training program for 6–12-year-old boys with oppositional defiant disorder and/or conduct disorder [1]. Their Treatment Program for Children with Aggressive Behavior (THAV) consists of a 24-week child-focused cognitive–behavioral intervention, combined with parent management interventions and teacher- and peer-focused interventions according to the individual needs of the child. In a randomized controlled study, THAV had moderate effects immediately after the intervention on parent ratings of aggressive behavior, comorbid symptoms, psychosocial impairment, quality of life, parental stress, and negative expressed emotions of parents toward their child, as compared to an active control condition (i.e., group play) [2]. In the current article, the authors investigated the stability of these initial effects 10 months after the intervention had ended. Their findings indicate that the effects of THAV remained stable and even partially improved over the follow-up period, with differences in treatment effects compared to the group of children who had received group play mostly remaining in place after 10 months. …