Trauma-Focused CBT for young children with PTSD
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A randomised controlled efficacy trial of trauma-focused cognitive behaviour therapy for posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in young children aged 3-8 years (PYCES2)
IRAS ID
335868
Contact name
Tim Dalgleish
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Cambridgeshire and Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust and University of Cambridge
ISRCTN Number
ISRCTN79860495
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
CPMS ID, 59122
Duration of Study in the UK
3 years, 8 months, 25 days
Research summary
Following horrific or life threatening events (e.g. serious accidents, witnessing violence, medical emergencies) around 10-20% of pre-school and early school-age children, as with older children and adults, develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). PTSD is a serious disorder comprising distressing symptoms including nightmares, flashbacks (very vivid visual memories of the trauma that intrude into the mind), anger outbursts, and disturbed play. These symptoms generally cause major disruption to the young child’s social, family and educational functioning, and if left untreated can persist for many years. Despite this, PTSD in younger children (PTSD-YC) mostly goes untreated in the NHS because there are no established treatments that have been validated in clinical research. We know that a form of psychological intervention, Trauma-Focused Cognitive Behaviour Therapy (TF-CBT), is effective in treating PTSD in older children and adolescents, as well as in adults. We developed a form of TF-CBT that is developmentally appropriate for children as young as 3 years old (CBT-3M). Our preliminary randomised control trial (feasibility RCT) demonstrated that a fully-powered efficacy trial of CBT-3M is feasible in terms of recruitment and retainment of families and coordination with NHS services, and is acceptable to children, their carers and the clinicians taking part. The feasibility RCT also provided a strong preliminary signal of the likely efficacy for CBT-3M in treating PTSD-YC: 78% of children in the treatment group recovered from PTSD, compared to only 10% under usual NHS care. This protocol describes a fully-powered, multi-centre, two-arm randomised control efficacy trial (efficacy RCT) to further test the efficacy of CBT-3M in treating PTSD-YC. If the efficacy RCT supports our earlier findings that CBT-3M is beneficial, this will provide a firm evidence base for CBT-3M for PTSD in young children ready for further evaluation and implementation in the NHS.
REC name
East of England - Cambridge South Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
26/EE/0048
Date of REC Opinion
23 Apr 2026
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion