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Group Treatment for Self-harming Adolescents and Their Parents: a Randomized Controlled Trial
Sponsor: Karolinska Institutet
Summary
Adolescent non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) is common, strongly associated with psychiatric comorbidity and an increased risk of future suicide attempt. Although interventions targeting emotion regulation have been shown to reduce NSSI in both adults and adolescents few, are available within routine child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS). Emotion Regulation for Adolescents (ERA), adapted from an evidence-based adult intervention is a brief group-based treatment designed to increase access to effective, evidence-based care for adolescents with NSSI. A large-scale randomised controlled trial (RCT) is needed to establish its efficacy and strengthen the evidence base for emotion regulation interventions for adolescent NSSI. The overall aim of this project is to increase the availability of evidence-based psychological treatments for adolescent NSSI by developing and evaluating Emotion Regulation for Adolescents (ERA), a novel behavioural and acceptance-based intervention. The main objectives are to establish the efficacy, cost-effectiveness, and long-term outcomes of ERA for adolesent NSSI in two arm RCT comparing ERA with an active control condition (FUNK) as well as to investigate potential mediators such as emotion regulation and self-criticism.
Official title: A Randomised Controlled Trial of Group Emotion Regulation for Adolescent Self-harm (the ERA-study)
Key Details
Gender
All
Age Range
13 Years - 17 Years
Study Type
INTERVENTIONAL
Enrollment
180
Start Date
2026-08-17
Completion Date
2034-12-31
Last Updated
2026-07-22
Healthy Volunteers
No
Conditions
Interventions
Emotion Regulation Group Therapy for Self-harming Adolescents, ERA
Manualized 12-week group intervention for adolescents with NSSI and a parallel five-session parent program. Experimental: ERA Participants receive ERA a 12-week manualized group intervention, targeting NSSI. The intervention focuses on increasing adaptive emotion regulation, reducing impulsive behaviours, and increasing acceptance of difficult emotions with integrated exercises to increase self-compassion and reduce self-criticism. Caregivers participate in a parallel five-session parent group focusing on preventing NSSI contagion, supporting emotion regulation and strengthening adaptive family communication and functioning.
Functional habits for mental health, FUNK
Active comparator: Active Control Condition (FUNK) Participants receive a manualized active control condition FUNK consisting of: 1) ane individual family session to develop a personalized safety plan; 2) five group-based psychoeducation family sessions over 10 weeks, covering sleep, nutrition and physical activity, anxiety, depression and emotions; and 3) weekly suicide risk monitoring.