Pedophilia
Conditions
Keywords
Child sexual abuse, Pedophilic disorder, Preventive psychiatry, Internet based intervention, Cognitive behavioral therapy, Waitlist
Brief summary
Child sexual abuse is a large-scale global problem, and with the internet and communication technologies enabling new ways to sexually abuse children, the problem is drastically increasing. Prevent It is a free, anonymous, internet-delivered, therapist assisted, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) intervention for individuals concerned about their sexual urges or behaviors involving children. The treatment program is based on many years of clinical experience from working with this patient group, results from several previous research projects. Using the scientifically rigorous design of a randomized controlled trial with waitlist control, we want to evaluate Prevent It 2.0 - an updated cognitive behavioral therapy treatment for individuals who are concerned about their sexual urges regarding children. The study design is an academically initiated randomized controlled clinical trial where Prevent It 2.0 is compared with waitlist control. Participants in the waitlist control will wait thirteen weeks before starting active treatment. While on the waitlist, participants will respond to questions about ongoing problematic sexual behavior. Recruitment will be carried out through multiple channels, and takes place on both Darknet and Clearnet. All contact with participants, the treatment, evaluations, and termination of the contact, is conducted via the online treatment platform Iterapi, designed specifically for clinical trials of Internet-mediated CBT. The treatment contains nine modules over thirteen weeks and the content of the therapy is classic CBT.
Interventions
OTHERWaitlist
Participants in the waitlist control will wait thirteen weeks before starting active treatment. While on the waitlist, participants will respond to questions about ongoing problematic sexual behavior.
OTHERPrevent It 2.0
A free, anonymous, internet-delivered, therapist assisted, cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) intervention
Sponsors
The Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre
Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Karolinska Institutet
Study design
Allocation
RANDOMIZED
Intervention model
PARALLEL
Primary purpose
TREATMENT
Masking
NONE
Intervention model description
An academically initiated randomized controlled clinical trial where Prevent It 2.0 is compared with waitlist control
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
ALL
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
No
Inclusion criteria
* concern about sexual urges regarding children * Informed consent to participate
Exclusion criteria
* Participants with a severe psychiatric illness (such as high acute suicide risk or severe substance abuse) * Participants that are judged to have a limited understanding of the languages that the treatment is delivered in (English) * Lack serious intention to participate (assessed by the researcher/therapist during the intake interview, which lasts approximately one hour)
Design outcomes
Primary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Is Prevent It 2.0 effective in reducing participants' urges to act on sexual behaviors involving children, as measured by the SSAS (Sexual Symptom Assessment Scale)?involving children | Up to 13 weeks | Sexual Symptom Assessment Scale, The range is 0 to 48, with 0 indicating no symptoms and 48 indicating severe symptoms. |
Secondary
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Is Prevent It 2.0 effective in reducing participants' sexual behaviors involving children, as measured by the Sexual Child Molestation Risk Assessment (the SChiMRA+) Part B? | Up to 13 weeks | The Sexual Child Molestation Risk Assessment, there's no scoring system at the moment. It's all item-by-item. But for all items, higher values are worse (e.g., more hours watching CSAM, more motivation to interact with children, etc). |
Other
| Measure | Time frame | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Is Prevent It 2 safe from a negative side effects perspective, as measured by the Negative Effects Questionnaire (NEQ-20)? | Up to 13 weeks | NEQ-20 taps the occurrence (binary, yes or no) and severity (on a 5-point Likert scale 0-4, ranging from not at all to extremely) of 20 statements regarding negative effects of psychological treatment and ends with one free-text question. For each statement answered with yes , the respondent also reports whether they believe the negative effect is caused by the treatment I received or other circumstances. Maximum score = 80, Minimum score = 0. |
| Comparisons of attrition rates in active arm and waitlist in Prevent It 2, to active arm and placebo in Prevent It 1? | Up to 13 weeks | — |
| Comparisons of SChiMRA in active arm and waitlist in Prevent It 2, to active arm and placebo in Prevent It 1? | Up to 13 weeks | — |
| Comparisons of NEQ-20 in active arm and waitlist in Prevent It 2, to active arm and placebo in Prevent It 1? | Up to 13 weeks | — |
Countries
Sweden
Outcome results
None listed