Active clinical trials for "Neurodevelopmental Disorders"

Aims of the study. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effectiveness of the ChildTalks+ intervention and to implement it in education and practice. By delivering the ChildTalks+ intervention, i.e. educating parents about the transgenerational transmission of the disorder, informing them about the impact on their children, strengthening their parenting competencies, supporting communication within the family and informing COPMI about their parents' mental disorder, listening to their needs and providing emotional and social support to the family, the investigators expect the following outcomes: improved family communication, including children's awareness of their parents' mental health problems, improved overall well-being of COPMI, heightened perceptions of parental competence, increased family protective factors, including strengthened social support, sustained over time. Part of the intervention consists of early identification of social-emotional problems in children and referral for further professional help. The research questions the investigators will focus on are: What are the effects of the ChildTalks+ intervention in families where parents have a mental health disorder? Is the ChildTalks+ intervention feasible for therapists who treat patients with mental disorder? Is the ChildTalks+ intervention feasible in families where one parent has an eating disorder? Should the ChildTalks+ intervention be modified for this group of families where parent has an eating disorders?

A randomized controlled trial to determine the effect of reducing iodine from vitamin and mineral supplements for pregnant women who have adequate iodine intakes (>165 μg/d from food alone) on cognitive development of children at 24 months of age.

This study is to evaluate the use of glycerol phenylbutyrate for monogenetic developmental epileptic encephalopathies (DEEs). DEEs are characterized by epilepsy and developmental delay in early life. Two examples of DEEs are STXBP1 and SLC6A1, though there are dozens of others. STXBP1 Encephalopathy is a severe disease that can cause seizures and developmental delays in infants and children. SLC6A1 neurodevelopmental disorder is characterized by developmental delay and often epilepsy. Both STXBP1 encephalopathy and SLC6A1 neurodevelopmental disorder cause symptoms because there are not enough working proteins made by these genes. It is possible that a medication called phenylbutyrate may help the the remaining proteins work better for STXBP1, SLC6A1, and/or other similar DEEs caused by single genes (i.e. "monogenetic"). This study is to test if glycerol phenylbutyrate is safe and well tolerated in children with monogenetic DEE.

INTRODUCTION: Suction problems are very common in premature children due to a lack of maturation and orofacial control, the manifestation of a low muscle tone and the incoordination during sucking-swallow-breathe. In addition, there are some problems in different systems that get it worse. AIM: compare oral stimulation programme with a neurodevelopmental stimulation intervention programme combined with an oral stimulation programme, evaluating its effectiveness on feeding development, neuromotor development and other aspects of development. METHODOLOGY: we proposed a prospective parallel group clinical trial with two randomized and independent experimental groups. All preterm infants born between 2022-2023 at University Hospital Torrecárdenas, with nasogastric tube and gestational age between 27-32 weeks will be included. EXPECTED BENEFITS: to have better results when the preterm infant is approached globally, also considering the postural situation of the preterm infant. In addition, it is expected that the development of children treated by combining oral stimulation with neurodevelopmental stimulation will be equated or close to healthy and born-to-term child. RESULTS APPLICABILITY: Improved eating performances will reduce length of hospital stay as well as a greater autonomy improving family situation. It will also allow the reduction of hospital costs and the creation of a new way to attend this problem in preterm children.

The goal of this cluster randomized control clinical trial is to evaluate the effectiveness of the Mediational Intervention for Sensitizing Caregivers for Community-based Organizations (MISC-CBO) in reducing mental health problems in orphan and vulnerable children in South Africa. Aim 1 will evaluate the direct effects of MISC-CBO on video-coded CBO caseworker caregiving quality (affiliation and attachment) and children's mental health outcomes over a 24 month period. 24 CBOs (360 children and 72 caseworkers) will be recruited using existing Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) partner (Childline) in two districts in the Free State, South Africa (SA). CBOs will be randomly assigned to receive either one year of bi-weekly MISC-CBO or Treatment as Usual (TAU). The investigators hypothesize that MISC-CBO will be associated with comparative increases in caseworker caregiving quality and reductions in mental health problems in Orphans and Vulnerable Children (OVC). Aim 2a,will test the hypothesis that caregiving quality at end-of-intervention (12 months) accounts for intervention effects on child mental health at 18 and 24 months. Aim 2b will evaluate the moderating effects of orphan status and the quality of the home environment, expecting that OVC who are maternal and double orphans, and from impoverished home environments will show reduced response to intervention compared to children without these risk factors. Aim 3a will use World Health Organization metrics to test the hypothesis that MISC-CBO is cost-effective in terms of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs) averted. Aim 3b will use qualitative methodology to test the hypothesis that community stakeholders deem the climate favorable and ready for the implementation of MISC-CBO, and that additional barriers and facilitators for scale-up and implementation will be identified. The proposed work extends the investigators' formative work to now fully test the real-world effectiveness, mechanisms of action, cost-effectiveness and implementation readiness of MISC-CBO during the critical developmental window of at-risk children aging into adolescence, consistent with National Institute of Mental Health's strategic objectives.

This study aims to test the feasibility of implementing an Icelandic cognitive-behavioral program designed to prevent depression, called "Thoughts and Health" in a Swedish school setting. The investigators will also evaluate whether implementation of the program has an impact on the participating students, regarding both their mental health and their success in finishing junior high school with passing grades.

The goals of this study are to: evaluate and validate the low-cost, transportable, easily-administered Malawi Developmental Assessment Tool (MDAT) for neurodevelopmental assessment of children aged 4-8 years old in Malawi, as compared to the gold-standard yet more cumbersome and costly Kaufman Assessment Battery for Children-II (KABC-II) among (1) n=500 formerly preterm children and (2) n=500 formerly term children. Additionally, we will evaluate the effects of gestational xylitol exposure compared to a lack of gestational xylitol exposure on neurodevelopmental outcomes of children aged 4-8 years old in Malawi through the following four neurodevelopmental tests: (3) KABC-II (cognitive outcomes), (4) EF Touch (executive functions), (5) Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (social-emotional outcomes), and (6) MDAT (motor and cognitive outcomes). The researchers will leverage subjects who completed the parent Prevention of Prematurity and Xylitol Trial, which enrolled 10069 pregnant individuals in Malawi and demonstrated a significant 24% reduction in incidence of preterm birth and low birthweight offspring in gravidae who chewed xylitol-containing chewing gum compared to those who did not. By ensuring that these offspring did not have higher rates of neurodevelopmental impairment, the study will promote promising multi-center international and domestic trial evaluating the impact of xylitol-containing chewing gum use and optimal dosage during pregnancy.

To prevent mental health problems among 7-12 children from orphanages reunited with their biological or extended families in Azerbaijan, this study will refine and test three evidence-based intervention approaches (a) family strengthening intervention; b) mental health screening and referral for treatment; and c) economic empowerment in the form of Child Savings Accounts). The study will use a randomized experimental design and participating families will be assigned to receive the family strengthening, mental health, or economic interventions. Eligible and consenting 400 child-caregivers dyads will complete baseline, 1-year, and 2-year follow-up measures. Additionally, post-intervention qualitative interviews (n=60) will solicit narrative information about participants' and services providers' reactions and experiences with each intervention component and will provide more comprehensive evidence about the interventions' efficacy. It is hypothesized that by enhancing children's coping skills, strengthening child-parent relationships, and reducing parental stress, an intervention can help children demonstrate fewer symptoms of: a) disturbances of attachment; b) internalizing problems (depressive or anxious mood), c) externalizing problems (aggressive, delinquent, or disruptive behaviors); d) post-traumatic stress; and e) lower prevalence of diagnoses (e.g. depression, anxiety, PTSD, oppositional-defiant disorder, and reactive attachment disorder).

The proposed study aims to determine the feasibility of the procedures for a future full randomized controlled trial (RCT), which will test the efficacy of a parent-child yoga intervention in reducing attention deficits in children with congenital heart disease (CHD). Specific aims of this single-blind, two-arm, two-center feasibility trial are to evaluate recruitment rates and capacity, withdrawal and dropout rates, adherence to the intervention, acceptability of the randomization process by families, variation in delivery of the intervention between yoga instructors, and standard deviation of main outcomes of the future RCT in order to determine its appropriate sample size. This feasibility study will lead to the first ever RCT to test the efficacy of an intervention strategy for reducing attention deficits in children with CHD. Ultimately, the implementation of this parent-child yoga program will lead to better long-term academic and psychosocial functioning and quality of life for these children and their family.

Nearly one in five children in the United States has a mental health problem that interferes with daily functioning and requires intervention, and yet less than 50% of children who need mental health care receive any services. Families and especially from low-income and ethnically diverse backgrounds, experience a range of barriers to engaging in services for their children including: lack of recognition of problems and knowledge of available treatments, connecting to services, trust in providers, stigma; low income and ethnically diverse populations are especially affected by these barriers. In this work, the investigators propose to carry out initial testing of a research- and theory-based model of Parent Peer Navigation services to help engage families with children with significant but pre-clinical problems in mental health services in order to prevent future poorer outcomes for children, who otherwise may never receive services, or only receive services when their mental health issues become severely debilitating for themselves and their family.