CBT for Prolonged Grief in Children and Adolescents: A Randomized Clinical Trial

Objective: Prolonged grief disorder was newly included in ICD-11 and resembles persistent complex bereavement disorder, DSM-5. Although prolonged adults can be successfully treated by cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), there is no evidence yet that CBT interventions alleviate the children adolescents. The goal of this randomized clinical trial to examine effects a program, Grief-Help, for adolescents comparison with nondirective supportive counseling. Methods: A total 134 (mean age, 13.10 years [SD=2.84], bereaved mean 37.79 months [SD=36.23] earlier) were randomly assigned receive either Grief-Help (N=74) or counseling (N=60). Both treatment conditions encompassed nine individual sessions paralleled five parents caretakers. Children completed measures depression, posttraumatic stress (PTSD), their caretakers children’s problem behavior before treatment, immediately after 3, 6, 12 treatment. Results: treatments yielded moderate large effect sizes across most other outcome measures. Compared counseling, resulted significantly greater reductions symptoms at all posttreatment assessments, it more successful alleviating PTSD symptoms, internalizing problems 6 Conclusions: its effectively interventions. superior long-term relative suggest strengthens facing challenges brought about bereavement.