Clinical trial NCT03515564: Arts and Movement Therapies for Trauma
Official title: Targeting Trauma-Related Disorders With Arts and Movement Therapies
Study type: INTERVENTIONAL
Overall status: COMPLETED
Phase: NA
Conditions: PTSD
Depression
Anxiety
Stress
Trauma
Lead sponsor: Wayne State University
Sponsor class: OTHER
First posted: 2018-05-03
Enrollment: 129
Sex: ALL
Minimum age (years): 7
Maximum age (years): 65
Standard ages: CHILD
ADULT
OLDER_ADULT
Accepts healthy volunteers: no
Allocation: NON_RANDOMIZED
Intervention model: PARALLEL
Primary purpose: TREATMENT

Brief summary: The current goal of this project is to subjectively and objectively assess the efficacy of arts and movement interventions--including dance/movement therapy, art therapy and mindful yoga for youth and adults exposed to trauma, including families resettled as refugees and families in high-risk, low-resource environments. The overarching aim is to measure the changes over time in self-reported symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder, anxiety disorder(s), depression, and somatic symptoms, as well as changes in biological substrates representing pathophysiological processes involved in responses to stress, trauma, and the aforementioned disorders. These biological substrates include inflammatory proteins and the stress hormone cortisol. We hypothesize that given the emotional and physical components of arts and movement therapies, which are implemented in group settings and confer life-long coping skills to participants, participation in arts and movement therapies will result in reduction of self-reported severity of psyciatric symptoms and improved physiology.

COVID-19: In March, the COVID-19 pandemic caused in person research to be halted in order to be in adherence to the stay at home order for the State of Michigan. The IRB overseeing the present project approved an amendment to allow data to be collected online via phone or email, based on participant preference, with a new consent form for this new method of data collection. Following this approval, we migrated our programming to virtual formats and began to serve both refugee commuities as well as school-aged youth with the intervention program and obtained consent followed by data from participants as part of this study. We have pivoted towards also looking at the benefits of creative arts and movement based interventions in reducing COVID-related distress, as well as building resilience.

By collecting psychological and biomarker data the investigators seek concrete scientific evidence supporting these non-pharmacological, cost effective, and accessible programs as reliable treatment options.


Eligibility criteria: Inclusion Criteria:

* Male and female children and adults ages 7-65
* Willing and able to consent, or with at least one parent willing and able to provide consent for minors under age 18

Exclusion Criteria:

* Adults who are unable or unwilling to consent, or children whose parent do not consent
* Wardens of the Court

Primary outcomes:
measure: PTSD symptoms (children)
timeFrame: 8 weeks
Secondary outcomes:
measure: PTSD symptoms (adults)
timeFrame: 8 weeks
measure: Depressive symptoms (adults)
timeFrame: 8 weeks
measure: Depressive Symptoms (Children)
timeFrame: 8 weeks
measure: Anxiety Symptoms (Children)
timeFrame: 8 weeks
measure: Somatic Symptoms (adults and children)
timeFrame: 8 weeks
measure: Inflammatory State
timeFrame: 8 weeks
measure: Cortisol
timeFrame: 8 weeks
Other outcomes:
Locations:
city: Detroit
country: United States
facility: Wayne State U Department of Psychiatry
state: Michigan
Study officials:
affiliation: Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Neuroscience, Wayne State University
name: Arash Javanbakht, MD
role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR
References:
citation: Grasser LR, Al-Saghir H, Wanna C, Spinei J, Javanbakht A. Moving Through the Trauma: Dance/Movement Therapy as a Somatic-Based Intervention for Addressing Trauma and Stress Among Syrian Refugee Children. J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2019 Nov;58(11):1124-1126. doi: 10.1016/j.jaac.2019.07.007. Epub 2019 Jul 23.