ABSTRACT
INTRODUCTION: Atopic dermatitis (AD) is the most common childhood inflammatory skin problem affecting 15%-30% of children. Although AD adversely impacts the psychosocial well-being of children and their parent caregivers, parents' psychosocial well-being is seldom mentioned in most non-pharmacological education programmes. A family-based psychosocial intervention, Integrative Body-Mind-Spirit (I-BMS) intervention, is examined. This study compares the efficacy of two versions of the I-BMS intervention (one delivered to both parents and children; one delivered to parents only) with a health education active control (delivered to parents only) in promoting adaptive emotional regulation and quality of life of children with AD and their parent caregivers. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: This is a three-arm, with equal randomisation, parallel randomised controlled trial. 192 parent-child dyads will be recruited through hospitals and non-governmental organisations in Hong Kong. Each dyad will complete an individual pre-group screening interview. Eligible dyads will be randomised in a ratio of 1:1:1 into one of the three arms. Each arm consists of six weekly sessions. A computer-generated list of random numbers will be used to perform randomisation. The primary outcomes are quality of life and emotional regulation. Assessments are administered at baseline, post-intervention and 6-week follow-up. Mixed factorial Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVAs) based on intention-to-treat principle will be conducted to examine the efficacy of the two I-BMS interventions. Structural equation modelling will be conducted to examine the parent-child interdependent effects of intervention. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethics approval was obtained from the Human Research Ethics Committee of the University of Hong Kong (EA2001001) and the Institutional Review Board of the Hospital Authority of Hong Kong (UW 21-400, KC/KE-20-0360/FR-2, NTEC-2021-0408). Consent will be sought from participating parents and children. Parental consent for child participants will also be obtained. Findings will be presented in peer-reviewed journals and at conferences in medical dermatology, paediatrics and social work. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ClinicalTrials.gov Registry (NCT04617977).
Subject(s)
Dermatitis, Atopic , Eczema , Child , Dermatitis, Atopic/therapy , Humans , Parent-Child Relations , Parents/psychology , Quality of Life , Randomized Controlled Trials as TopicABSTRACT
Altered risk-taking propensity is an important determinant of functional impairment in bipolar disorder. However, prior studies primarily assessed patients with chronic illness, and risk-taking has not been evaluated in the early illness course. This study investigated risk-taking behavior in 39 euthymic early-stage bipolar disorder patients aged 16-40 years who were treated within 3 years from their first-episode mania with psychotic features and 36 demographically-matched healthy controls using the Balloon Analog Risk Task (BART), a well-validated risk-taking performance-based paradigm requiring participants to make responses for cumulative gain at increasing risk of loss. Relationships of risk-taking indices with symptoms, self-reported impulsivity, cognitive functions, and treatment characteristics were also assessed. Our results showed that patients exhibited significantly lower adjusted scores (i.e., average balloon pumps in unexploded trials) (p = 0.001), lower explosion rate (p = 0.007) and lower cumulative scores (p = 0.003) than controls on BART, indicating their suboptimal risk-taking performance with increased propensity for risk aversion. Risk-taking indices were not correlated with any symptom dimensions, self-reported impulsivity, cognitive functions or antipsychotic dose. No significant difference was observed between patients with and without antipsychotic medications on self-reported impulsivity or any of the BART performance indices. This is the first study to examine risk-taking behavior in early-stage bipolar disorder with history of psychosis and indicates that patients displayed altered risk-taking with increased risk aversion compared with controls. Further research is needed to clarify longitudinal trajectory of risk-taking propensity and its relationships with psychosis and functional outcome in the early stage of bipolar disorder.
