Psychological interventions for children with anxiety disorders show promising results

_{Abridged version in English: Diana Taborda}

A team of Portuguese researchers and psychologists are testing two psychological intervention programmes with children between the ages of 7 and 12 and their parents, which have been shown to significantly reduce children's anxiety symptoms and the impact these have on their lives and families.

The pilot study of the psychological intervention programmes "Emotion Detectives In-Out" and "Coping Cat" is being conducted by the University of Coimbra (UC) and the University of Lisbon (ULisboa). They are aimed at children with clinically significant anxiety symptoms, such as separation anxiety, in which separation from the parents becomes almost unbearable; social phobia, when the child struggles to engage in social interactions and fears social judgement; and generalised anxiety, and generalised anxiety, where children are constantly worried about things they cannot control.

According to project coordinator Helena Moreira, professor at the Faculty of Psychology and Educational Sciences of the University of Coimbra (FPCEUC) and researcher at the Centre for Research in Neuropsychology and Cognitive-Behavioural Intervention (CINEICC), the team would like to see these two psychological interventions made available and widely used in Portugal, given the urgent need to treat childhood emotional disorders.

Moreira adds, "We know that if anxiety disorders are not adequately treated in childhood, the likelihood of relapse or the development of new disorders in adolescence and adulthood is high. The early years of life represent an extraordinarily important opportunity to promote lifelong mental health, yet many children do not even have access to mental health care, especially evidence-based treatment".

The research project 'Emotion Detectives In-Out: a blended online and face-to-face version of the Unified Protocol for Children' is a way of filling the gaps in mental health care for children. The project consists of a trial of two cognitive-behavioural based interventions ("Emotion Detectives In-Out" and "Coping Cat") designed to help children reduce the intensity and frequency of strong and distressing emotional experiences by learning skills for managing these emotions in a more adaptive way.

The Emotion Detectives In-Out programme combines face-to-face group sessions and completely self-guided online sessions that the child must complete at home, with or without the parents' help, who are, however, invited to take part in the sessions.

The research team used the face-to-face only version of the Emotion Detectives programme to more than 150 children with clinically significant anxiety and/or depressive symptoms between 2020 and 2022. The results showed a significant reduction in symptoms and avoidance of feared situations, and an increase in adaptive emotional regulation skills. These results, says Helena Moreira, "gave us the confidence to look at other versions of the programme, particularly the blended version".

The project is cochaired by Ana Isabel Pereira, a professor at the Faculty of Psychology at the University of Lisbon and also involves the Cognitive-Behavioural Clinical Psychology Unit (UpC3) of the University of Coimbra and the Research Center for Psychological Science (CICPSI), University of Lisbon.

More info available at www.instagram.com/detetivesinout_gatohabilidoso/.