Specialist Childhood Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) Treatment Trials
The Childhood PTSD treatment stream addresses the need for the development of acceptable, feasible and efficacious treatments for childhood posttraumatic stress. here is some information on our current and recently completed trials:
PYCES stands for Parents and Young Children Under Extreme Stress and compares usual care against our CBT-3M protocol adapted for younger children aged 3-8 years old who have experienced or witnessed an extreme event and have developed PTSD following the event. Our original feasability trials has now been published.
Hitchcock, C., Goodall, B., Griffiths, K., Chadwick, I., Werner-Seidler, A., Dunning, D., Johnson, D., Gillard, J., Panesar, I., Humphrey, A., Watson, P., Mckinnon, A., Smith, P., Meiser-Stedman, R. & Dalgleish, T. (2021). The early course and treatment of posttraumatic stress disorder in very young children: diagnostic prevalence and predictors in hospital-attending children and a randomized controlled proof-of-concept trial of trauma-focused cognitive therapy, for 3- to 8-year-olds Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 63, 58-67. PDF
We have just received funding from the NIHR for PYCES-II, a scaled-up efficacy RCT, which started in April 2025.
DECRYPT stands for Delivery of Cognitive therapy for Young People after Trauma and builds on PROSPECTS (see previous studies section). It compared usual care with out extended and modified version of CBT-3M for the treatment for PTSD in children and adolescents who have experienced multiple, repeated traumatic stressors, such as abuse or domestic/community violence. This work has just been accepted for publication.
Meiser-Stedman, R., Allen, L., Ashford, P. A., Beeson, E., Byford, S., Chow, J., … Dalgleish, T.* & Smith, P.* (2025). A phase II pragmatic randomised controlled trial of cognitive therapy for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in children and adolescents exposed to multiple traumatic stressors: The DECRYPT trial. World Psychiatry.
*Joint Senior Authors
We have also recently complted the OPTYC RCT. This is an RCT examining the feasibility of the digital version of our therapy for adolescents with PTSD. The results have been published were very encouraging and we have not applied for funding for a scale up efficacy RCT.
Smith, P., Ehlers, A., Carr, E., Clark, D. M., Dalgleish, T., Forbes, G., … & Meiser‐Stedman, R. (2025). Early‐stage randomised controlled trial of therapist‐supported online cognitive therapy for post‐traumatic stress disorder in young people. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, Online First. PDF
The ASPECTS clinical trial looked at how we might support children and young people soon after a traumatic experience like a motor vehicle collision or assault. It wa
s the first trial of its kind in the world. In particular, we looked at whether a psychological therapy called “trauma-focused cognitive therapy” would help children and young people feel better.
The main findings are published in:
Meiser‐Stedman, R., Smith, P., McKinnon, A., Dixon, C., Trickey, D., Ehlers, A., … & Dalgleish, T. (2017). Cognitive therapy as an early treatment for post‐traumatic stress disorder in children and adolescents: A randomized controlled trial addressing preliminary efficacy and mechanisms of action. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 58(5), 623-633.
The Health economics findings are here:
Shearer, J., Papanikolaou, N., Meiser-Stedman, R., McKinnon, A., Dalgleish, T., Smith, P., Dixon, C., & Byford, S. (2018). Cost-effectiveness of cognitive therapy as an early intervention for post-traumatic stress disorder in children and adolescents: a trial based evaluation and model. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry. 59, 773-780 doi:10.1111/jcpp.12851. PDF
PROSPECTS was a clinical case series investigating and extended and modified version of CBT-3M for the treatment of PTSD in children who have experienced multiple, repeated traumatic stressors, such as abuse or domestic/community violence. The case series formed the basis of the DECRYPT trial reported above. The case series is published here: