Browsing by Author "Närvänen, Eija"

Objective. The FRIENDS programme is a group cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) programme, developed for the prevention and treatment of child and adolescent anxiety and depression. In the context of prevention, FRIENDS has been extensively researched; however, little research has been conducted on FRIENDS in a treatment setting and with different populations. To help fill this gap, the aim of the present study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Finnish version of FRIENDS in reducing internalising symptoms in children diagnosed with psychiatric and neuropsychiatric disorders. Methods. The present study was conducted at Helsinki University Hospital (HUS) Child Psychiatry outpatient clinics in the Helsinki metropolitan area, Finland. The participating children (n = 99, mean age = 9.45 years, range 6–13 years, 68.7 % boys) were randomly assigned to either FRIENDS (n = 52) or a waitlist control group (n = 47), which received treatment as usual for a period of 3 months before the intervention. The children’s internalising symptoms were assessed using parent- and teacher-report questionnaires (Child Behavior Checklist and Teacher’s Report Form) at referral to treatment, pre-treatment, post-treatment, and six-month follow-up. Results and conclusions. In both groups, there was a medium-sized statistically significant decrease in parent-reported internalising symptoms immediately after the intervention; however, these improvements were not retained at six-month follow-up. Teacher-reported internalising symptoms followed a similar pattern of decrease during the intervention and increase during follow-up; however, these changes were smaller in magnitude and did not reach statistical significance, possibly due to loss of statistical power caused by missing data. Neither parent- or teacher-reports showed an intervention effect, with children’s internalising symptoms exhibiting similar changes regardless of whether they belonged to the intervention group or the waitlist control group, which received treatment as usual during the wait period. These results raise questions on the durability of treatment effects and the superiority of FRIENDS over active waitlist control conditions or treatment as usual when treating children diagnosed with diverse psychiatric and neuropsychiatric disorders in a community setting where treatment adherence and integrity may not be ideal.