PR-ESSENCE for Youth With Challenging Behavior

The method "Collaborative and Proactive Solutions" (CPS) was developed by Dr. Ross Greene, Harvard University, to understand and help kids with social, emotional, and behavioral challenges. The underlying theory is that challenging behavior is caused by lagging cognitive skills, commonly in the domains of flexibility/adaptability, frustration tolerance, and problem-solving. Thus, challenging behavior can be seen as a form of developmental delay, and the most effective way for adults to help the children and to facilitate interaction with them is to understand the lagging skills behind the behavior and to change their own mindset accordingly. ADHD and autism belong in a group of overlapping neurodevelopmental conditions now often referred to under the umbrella term of ESSENCE (Early Symptomatic Syndromes Eliciting Neurodevelopmental Clinical Examinations). A common impairing problem in both autism and ADHD - and in several of the other disorders in the group of ESSENCE (including Tourette syndrome and other tic disorders) - is the marked inability to control temper, coupled with oppositional-defiant behaviors. The CPS-method has been evaluated by Ross Greene et al. in United States studies for families, in schools, and in institutions for young people with serious behavior problems. Our research group published the first Swedish study with the method in 2012, a small open pilot study. Based on experiences in clinical work after that study our group reached the conclusion that, in order for the intervention to be useful for families with severely impairing ESSENCE, the CPS model needed to be modified. After a number of research meetings and seminars, we therefore designed a new model, based on our CPS-experience, that we now refer to as PR-ESSENCE (Problem Resolution in ESSENCE). The present study is a randomized controlled trial for approximately 130 children and adolescents aged 5-18 years, with neuropsychiatric disorders (for instance Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD), Conduct Disorder (CD), Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), Tourette syndrome, learning difficulties), children who have been assessed at our Child Neuropsychiatry Clinic (CNC), and from the Habilitation Services, Child Psychiatry Units or schools in the Göteborg region.