New interaction therapy shows promise for depression in kids
New York, June 24: If your child is depressed, then a therapy-based treatment for disruptive behavioural disorders can be used as an effective treatment option, a new study suggests.
The researchers studied 229 parent-child pairs after adapting a treatment known as Parent-Child Interaction Therapy (PCIT) that was developed in the 1970s which added a series of sessions focussing on emotions to correct disruptive behaviour in pre-schoolers, Xinhua news agency reported on Friday.
In standard PCIT treatment, parents are taught techniques for successfully interacting with their children.
The researchers adapted this standard intervention by adding a new emotional development (ED) module to the treatment to target the therapy for childhood depression.
The researchers found that children in the PCIT-ED treatment group had improved functioning and had fewer comorbid disorders. They were rated as having greater emotional regulation skills and greater "guilt reparation" compared with children in the waitlist group.
"The study provides very promising evidence that an early and brief psychotherapeutic intervention that focuses on the parent-child relationship and on enhancing emotion development may be a powerful and low-risk approach to the treatment of depression," said lead author Joan Luby from the Washington University School of Medicine.
For the study, children aged 3-6 years who met the criteria for early childhood depression and their parents were randomly assigned to PCIT-ED treatment or a waitlist group.
Children in the PCIT-ED group completed standard PCIT modules for a maximum of 12 treatment sessions, followed by an emotional development module lasting eight sessions.
Children in the waitlist group were monitored but received no active intervention though after completion of the study, they were offered PCIT-ED treatment.
The researchers assessed before and after treatment or the waiting period, children's psychiatric symptoms, their emotional self-regulation abilities, their level of impairment and functioning, and their tendency to experience guilt.
Parents were assessed for depression severity, coping styles, and strategies they used in response to their child's negative emotions, and for stress within the parent-child relationship.
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England sticking with Key, McCullum and Stokes despite Ashes humbling
London (AP): England is not sacking anybody following the 4-1 Ashes loss in Australia.
A review of the tour by the England and Wales Cricket Board, announced within hours of the final match in January, was concluded on Monday. Firing people would “be the easy thing to do,” ECB chief executive Richard Gould said but he insisted, "This is not the time to throw everything out."
Managing director Rob Key, coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes kept their jobs after the best England side to go to Australia in 14 years lost the Ashes in 11 days with two games to spare.
“Moving people on can sometimes be the easy thing to do. That's not the route that we're going to take,” Gould said. “I've seen the driving ambition and determination that we're lucky enough to have within our leadership group to take the lessons from the Ashes and move forward.”
Gould previously was the chief executive of Bristol City soccer club and said the ECB would not follow the same route as soccer's hire-and-fire culture.
“Cricket is a very unique sport in that it takes a team of leadership ... it's not like football where there's a single point of failure or success with a manager," he said. He added the ECB would not “select or deselect management based on a popularity campaign.”
The main criticisms of England's tour were poor preparation, player misbehavior, and selection mistakes.
At a press conference at Lord's, Gould and Key said McCullum and Stokes have not had a “bust up,” they did not want McCullum to “completely change” but “to evolve,” the behavior of some players was “unprofessional,” there will be more consequences for underperforming, and a commitment to “better long-term planning” ahead of major test series.
Some changes were already implemented for the Twenty20 World Cup, where England reached the semifinals. Gould implied that performance saved McCullum.
Key acknowledged that England supporters would be disappointed to see the management team go unpunished.
“I know people want punishment and that people then should be sacked for that,” Key said. “That doesn't mean we don't feel like we've gone through some serious pain: Brendon, myself, Ben. It's been as tough a time as I think I've had.”
