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TerminatedNCT02737488Updated Mar 31, 2017

Helping Children With Trauma

A Phase 3 interventional study of Trauma Systems Therapy (TST) and Treatment as Usual (TAU) in Trauma and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, sponsored by NYU Langone Health. Terminated at 1 site in United States. Open to participants aged 7 Years to 17 Years. Per ClinicalTrials.gov, last updated 2017-03-31.

Sponsored by NYU Langone Health · Phase 3, Interventional, and Treatment

Phase
Phase 3
Study type
Interventional
Enrollment
14
Allocation
Randomized
Ages
7 Years to 17 Years
Sex
All
01

Study summary

The purpose of this study is to evaluate if a trauma treatment called Trauma Systems Therapy (TST) decreases children's mental health symptoms (such as acting out, not controlling their emotions, etc.) as a result of a traumatic event (or events). A traumatic event or events can include experiencing or witnessing violence, excessive bullying, war, car accident, serious injury, getting mistreated or anything else that makes one feel scared or frightened. Children/teens who experience traumatic events have been shown to be at higher risk of poor mental and physical health. Trauma can impact family life, school life and interpersonal relationships well into adulthood. Unfortunately, most children who have experienced traumatic events do not undergo treatment. Although promising treatments do exist, most do not address the complexity of trauma, particularly related to ongoing stress and threats to safety in their environments. One hundred and twenty eligible youth will be randomized to receive either treatment with TST at NYU's Child Study Center or trauma treatment as usual (TAU) at a community mental health clinic.

It is hypothesized that:

  • Youth receiving TST will demonstrate a greater decrease in Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) symptoms at the 3, 6, and 9-month follow-up assessments compared to youth receiving treatment as usual (TAU) in the community.
  • Youth receiving TST will demonstrate a greater decrease in symptoms of depression, anxiety and problem behaviors (aggression, violence, self-destructive behaviors, etc.) at the 3-, 6- and 9-month follow-up assessments compared to youth receiving TAU.
  • Youth receiving TST will have fewer acute mental health service events, such as psychiatric hospitalizations and ED visits compared to youth receiving TAU.
  • Greater fidelity to the TST model is associated with better treatment outcomes among youth receiving TST.
02

Conditions studied

  • Trauma
  • Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

Keywords

  • Therapy
  • Trauma Systems Therapy
03

In context

Wounds and Injuries

5,056 studies on the registry are indexed under Wounds and Injuries; 861 are open to participants now.

This study's enrollment of 14 is below the median of 52 across 3,239 interventional studies indexed under Wounds and Injuries.

Browse Wounds and Injuries studies →

Lead sponsor

NYU Langone Health is the lead sponsor of 1,391 studies on the registry; 254 are open to participants now.

Of its 227 completed or terminated interventional studies of FDA-regulated products, 191 (84%) have results posted.

Counted across the registry records on this site, refreshed daily.

04

Who can participate

Ages eligible
7 Years to 17 Years
Sexes eligible
All
Accepts healthy volunteers
No

Inclusion criteria

  • Between the ages of 7 and 17.
  • Have experienced a trauma and have symptoms of that trauma for more than 1 month
  • Have a legal guardian who is willing to give consent and a primary caregiver who will be available for assessments.

Exclusion criteria

Exclusion Criteria:

  • Reside outside the study area
  • Currently participating in another study
  • Do not speak English
  • Receive psychotherapy elsewhere
  • Have a sibling already participating in the study
  • Are acutely suicidal or homicidal
  • Demonstrate they are in immediate danger
  • Legal guardian does not give consent
  • If the primary caregiver does not speak English, does not have consistent access to a telephone, does not have the capacity to answer questions, the child will be excluded.
  • If a potential subject has started, stopped, or changed a psychotropic medication within 2 weeks of their intake appointment. If the family is willing to wait for 2 weeks the participant may then be eligible.
05

Study design

Phase
Phase 3
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Randomized
Intervention model
Parallel assignment
Masking
Single (Outcomes assessor)
Enrollment
14 participants (actual)

Study arms

  • Experimental
    TST

    Behavioral: Trauma Systems Therapy (TST)

  • Active comparator
    TAU Group

    Behavioral: Treatment as Usual (TAU)

Interventions

  • BehavioralTrauma Systems Therapy (TST)

    Treatment will be delivered by clinicians and trainees working at the CSC who have been trained in delivering TST. Participants who begin treatment in the safety-focused phase will have their treatment sessions in their homes. Whenever a child enters a different phase of treatment, he or she will go to the site for office visits. At the beginning of treatment, TST clinicians will do a brief diagnostic assessment. All documentation that is completed by the clinician as part of TST treatment at the NYU Langone Medical Center will be documented using Epic, a standard of care integrated health information system for patient safety. Although we are not providing the CSC's standard of care in this study,we are replicating standard care as TST is standard care in other settings. Providing medication is part of standard TST treatment and conforms to good usual practice integrated with psychotherapy. Medication will not be prescribed for research purposes.

  • BehavioralTreatment as Usual (TAU)

    Youth in the control group will be referred to a mental health clinic in close proximity to their residence, in order to receive an evaluation and trauma treatment as usually provided. It cannot be specifically determined, in advance, the nature of this treatment. The clinics will be contacted after the family enrolls to determine if there was a specific protocol followed. An NYU CSC research coordinator will contact the clinic and assist in scheduling the subject's first visit. Families who do not enroll in any community treatment or dropout of treatment will be followed according to the research protocol for data collection. At the 3, 6, and 9 month assessments, the research coordinator will request the patient's records from the community treatment clinic they are attending in order to track and keep record of the youth's treatment modality, progress, and visit frequency.

06

What researchers measure

Primary outcomes

  1. UCLA-Post Traumatic Stress Disorder-Reaction Index-DSM-IV (UCLA-PTSD-RI-DSM-IV)

    The primary outcome (PTSD symptom severity) will be collected at 3, 6 and 9 months post-randomization in addition to baseline. The effect of TST compared with TAU will be evaluated based on mixed effects model for longitudinal data.

    Time frame: 9 Months

  2. Child Stress Disorder Checklist (CSDC)

    The primary outcome (PTSD symptom severity) will be collected at 3, 6 and 9 months post-randomization in addition to baseline. The effect of TST compared with TAU will be evaluated based on mixed effects model for longitudinal data.

    Time frame: 9 months

07

Study locations

1 site
  • NYU Langone Medical Center
    New York, New York 10016, United States
08

Updates

Tracking since Sep 25, 2026
No changes since tracking began. The registry record was last updated on Mar 31, 2017, before this site started recording changes on Sep 25, 2026. Its history is on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗
09

Registry details

Key details

Study ID
NCT02737488
Lead sponsor
NYU Langone Health
Responsible party
Sponsor
First posted
Apr 14, 2016
Start date
Feb 1, 2016
Primary completion
Feb 1, 2017
Completion
Feb 1, 2017
Last update
Mar 31, 2017

Study contacts

Glenn Saxe, MD
principal investigator · Glenn.Saxe@nyumc.org

Oversight

Data monitoring committee
No
View the source record on ClinicalTrials.gov ↗

Not currently enrolling

This study is terminated, as verified in Mar 2017. You cannot join it, but the record below documents what was studied.

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