Treating Youths With PTSD and Conduct Problems

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The applicant is requesting 5 years of funding through the Mentored Career Development Award (K23) program to enhance her skills and knowledge in intervention research methodology with the ultimate goal of developing an independent program of research. The purpose of this award is to allow the applicant to build on her previous clinical and research experience indicating that female youths who have conduct problems have high rates of PTSD symptoms, which complicate treatment efforts. Specifically, the proposed training goals will provide specialized instruction and mentoring in the following areas: (1) the conduct of clinical trials, (2) intervention development for the integrated treatment of comorbid PTSD symptoms and conduct problems, (3) advanced statistical training in topics central to intervention research, and (4) training in the ethical conduct of research. The research plan is divided into three phases which complement the proposed sequence of training activities. During Phase I, the applicant will conduct a systematic review of existing assessments and interventions for treating PTSD. Under the guidance of mentors, assessments and interventions will be adapted for the treatment of PTSD symptoms with female youths who have comorbid conduct problems. During Phase II, the feasibility of the integrated intervention protocol will be tested on a small sample of female youths with comorbid PTSD symptoms and conduct problems. During Phase III, a small-scale pilot intervention trial will be conducted to test the integrated intervention protocol with a sample of female youths with comorbid PTSD symptoms and conduct problems. Each phase will build on previous phases, with the goal of producing a repeated assessment and an integrated intervention protocol for the treatment of PTSD symptoms in female youths who have comorbid conduct problems. Findings from the proposed research will be used to provide an effect-size estimate for the integrated treatment of comorbid PTSD symptoms and conduct problems, and ultimately, will provide the applicant with the knowledge and experience to pursue subsequent R01 applications and to expand this research to larger, more diverse samples.