Effects of a Cognitive Behavioral Therapy Intervention Trial to Improve Disease Outcomes in Children with Inflammatory Bowel Disease:

Studies testing the efficacy of behavioral interventions to modify psychosocial sequelae of IBD in children are limited. This report presents outcomes through a six month follow up from a large RCT testing the efficacy of a cognitive-behavioral intervention for children with IBD and their parents

Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy for Children With Functional Abdominal Pain and Their Parents Decreases Pain and Other Symptoms

Unexplained abdominal pain in children has been shown to be related to parental responses to symptoms. This randomized controlled trial tested the efficacy of an intervention designed to improve outcomes in idiopathic childhood abdominal pain by altering parental responses to pain and children's ways of coping and thinking about their symptoms

Twelve-Month Follow-up of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Children With Functional Abdominal Pain

To determine whether a brief intervention for children with functional abdominal pain and their parents' responses to their child's pain resulted in improved coping 12 months later

Twelve-Month Follow-up of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for Children With Functional Abdominal Pain

OBJECTIVE: To determine whether a brief intervention for children with functional abdominal pain and their parents' responses to their child's pain resulted in improved coping 12 months later. DESIGN: Prospective, randomized, longitudinal study. SETTING: Families were recruited during a 4-year period in Seattle, WA and Morristown, NJ. PARTICIPANTS: 200 children with persistent functional abdominal pain and their parents. INTERVENTIONS: A 3-session social learning and cognitive behavioral therapy intervention or an education and support intervention. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Child symptoms and pain coping responses were monitored using standard instruments, as was parental response to child pain behavior. Data were collected at baseline and after treatment (1 week and 3, 6, and 12 months after treatment). This article reports the 12-month data. RESULTS: Relative to children in the education and support group, children in the social learning and cognitive behavioral therapy group reported greater baseline to 12-month follow-up decreases in gastrointestinal symptom severity (estimated mean difference = -0.36, CI = -0.63, -0.01) and greater improvements in pain coping responses (estimated mean difference = 0.61, CI = 0.26, 1.02). Relative to parents in the education and support group, parents in the social learning and cognitive behavioral therapy group reported greater baseline to 12-month decreases in solicitous responses to their child's symptoms (estimated mean difference = -0.22, CI = -0.42, -0.03) and greater decreases in maladaptive beliefs regarding their child's pain (estimated mean difference = -0.36, CI = -0.59, -0.13). CONCLUSIONS: Results suggest long-term efficacy of a brief intervention to reduce parental solicitousness and increasing coping skills. This strategy may be a viable alternative for children with functional abdominal pain. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier #NCT0049426

Brief telephone-delivered cognitive behavioral therapy targeted to parents of children with functional abdominal pain: a randomized controlled trial

Pediatric functional abdominal pain disorders (FAPDs) are associated with increased health care utilization, school absences, and poor quality of life (QoL). Cost-effective and accessible interventions are needed. This multisite study tested the effects of a 3-session cognitivebehavioral intervention delivered to parents, in-person or remotely, on the primary outcome of pain severity and secondary outcomes (process measures) of parental solicitousness, pain beliefs, catastrophizing, and child-reported coping. Additional outcomes hypothesized a priori and assessed included functional disability, QoL, pain behavior, school absences, health care utilization, and gastrointestinal symptoms. The study was prospective and longitudinal (baseline and 3 and 6 months\u27 follow-up) with 3 randomized conditions: social learning and cognitive behavioral therapy in-person (SLCBT) or by phone (SLCBT-R) and education and support condition by phone (ES-R). Participants were children aged 7 to 12 years with FAPD and their parents (N = 316 dyads). Although no significant treatment effect for pain severity was found, the SLCBT groups showed significantly greater improvements compared with controls on process measures of parental solicitousness, pain beliefs, and catastrophizing, and additional outcomes of parent-reported functional disability, pain behaviors, child health care visits for abdominal pain, and (remote condition only) QoL and missed school days. No effects were found for parent and child-reported gastrointestinal symptoms, or child-reported QoL or coping. These findings suggest that for children with FAPD, a brief phone SLCBT for parents can be similarly effective as in-person SLCBT in changing parent responses and improving outcomes, if not reported pain and symptom report, compared with a control condition