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Biomedical subjects

Margo Thienemann

Publications and source records attributed to Margo Thienemann.

4 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2007

Teaching evidence-based psychotherapies.

Currently our field is actively involved in developing new ways to characterize and treat children and adolescents with psychiatric disorders and in evaluating the effects of our therapies. We also are beginning to examine the effectiveness of our teaching methods. This article presents evidence for, ideas about, and a philosophy to guide individuals who are privileged to train child psychiatrists in psychotherapies. Specifically, it discusses the issues of the evidence base for diagnosis and for nonspecific and specific active elements of child psychotherapy. Evidence for methods of training is presented. The article addressed the need for supervising psychiatrists to keep abreast of developments in teaching methods so that we can best train competent, curious, and compassionate child psychiatrists.

Accreditation↗
PubMed2006

A parent-only group intervention for children with anxiety disorders: pilot study.

OBJECTIVE: Working to optimize treatment outcome and use resources efficiently, investigators conducted the first test of an existing parent-only group cognitive-behavioral therapy protocol to treat 24 children 7 to 16 years old with primary anxiety disorder diagnoses. METHOD: Over the course of 7 months, the authors evaluated a manual-based therapy protocol that teaches parents skills to work with their children as lay therapists in the context of their ongoing interactions and daily life. This was an uncontrolled pilot study, examining within-subject outcomes via measures from multiple informants, aimed at generating estimates of effect size. RESULTS: Children demonstrated significant improvement on parent- and clinician-rated measures of anxiety. Twenty-five percent of primary anxiety diagnoses fully remitted, and the average number of anxiety diagnoses dropped from 3.4 to 1.5. The intervention had a large effect on anxiety disorder severity and impairment, parental attitudes, targeted anxious behavior problems, and clinician-rated impairment. Children with anxiety-disordered parents reported more improvement than children whose parents were not anxious. The intervention was acceptable to families. CONCLUSIONS: The results of this pilot study suggest that parents acting as lay cognitive-behavioral therapists for their anxious children may be effectively and acceptably trained in a group format.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2005

Group cognitive-behavior therapy with family involvement for middle-school-age children with obsessive-compulsive disorder: a pilot study.

OBJECTIVE: Middle-school-aged children with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) are poised in development between the dependency of elementary-school-aged children and growing independence of adolescence. OCD patients of this age group may differ from older ones in the quality of symptoms and level of insight. We report the results of a naturalistic, pilot study of group Cognitive-behavior Therapy (CBT) for school-aged children with OCD with parents involved. The authors predicted symptom improvement and format acceptability. METHOD: Over a 1.5 year period, 14 children with OCD aged 8-14 years and their parents received 14-week group CBT based on March and Mulle's OCD in Children and Adolescents: A Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment Manual in three consecutive sessions of four to six families. Age of onset averaged 8.7 years, 36% had undergone at least one medication trial, and 36% had previous CBT experience. RESULTS: OCD symptoms measured by the Children's Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale improved significantly, both statistically and clinically (25%) from moderate-severe to mild-moderate. Mean Clinical Global Impression of Impairment (NIMH-CGI) Impairment ratings fell from clinical to sub-clinical and CGI Improvement ratings were "much improved". Children's self-reported depression decreased significantly from pre- to post-group. Parent ratings of the negative impact of OCD symptoms on the Children's OCD Impact Scale and of behavior problems on the Child Behavior Checklist each improved significantly. CONCLUSIONS: This pilot study, which included a non-selected clinical sample, demonstrates that a manual-based treatment protocol may be effectively adapted for group treatment of different developmental levels and be exported for clinical use. Clinical improvement justifies further investigation in a controlled study.

Adolescent↗