A Novel Social Emotional Learning Curriculum for Youth With Epilepsy

Completed · Not applicable

Conditions studied: Epilepsy

In brief

Youth with epilepsy (YWE) are significantly more likely than their peers without epilepsy to experience isolation, interpersonal victimization, and low relationship satisfaction. This is a serious health concern. Poor social support, real or perceived, is consistently correlated to worsened outcomes in every domain of health-related quality of life. As YWE are two to five times more likely than their peers without epilepsy to develop a mental health condition, poor social support is likely a bidirectional risk factor. Currently, there are no best practices or recommendations for clinicians or other youth-serving professionals to reference when it comes to improving the perceived social support of YWE specifically. The research team has drawn from multiple fields of scientific knowledge to develop a novel intervention that aims to provide YWE with knowledge, skills, connections, and positive emotional support that can help them to bolster their support system at every level of the social ecological model (SEM). The proposed study is a pilot of this intervention to test its acceptability and appropriateness according to YWE participants ages 12 to 26. The intervention's impact on participants social-emotional learning skills and the feasibility of expanding the study protocol for use in a large, multisite randomized control trial will also be explored. The goal of this research study is to help evaluate a new program for young people diagnosed with epilepsy that will build up young people's social opportunities, interpersonal skills, and sources of emotional support. The investigators want to research the impact of this program. From this study, the investigators hope to learn what the program does well, and in what ways it could be improved from the perspective of YWE.

Key facts

Study ID

NCT06427967

Run by

Boston Medical Center

People needed

33

Starts

2024-07-16

Expected to finish

2025-07-30

Last updated by the study team

2025-08-03

Who can join

Age: 12 and older, up to 26. Sex: any. Healthy volunteers: not accepted.

You may qualify if…

• Able to read, write, and communicate in English at 3rd grade level
• Active epilepsy diagnosis (currently on anti-seizure medication or does not yet meet remission standards of 10 years without seizure and off all medication)
• Epilepsy diagnosis clinically established for at least 6 months prior to the time of recruitment
• The pediatric neurologist feels the patient would benefit from program participation.
• Able to consistently join meetings on Zoom with functional audio and video reception

You may not qualify if…

• During the consent process, if an eligible potential participant feels that participation would pose too much of a burden on their health or mental wellbeing, they will be excluded.

Where it is running

• Boston Medical Center, Neurology and remote — Boston, Massachusetts, United States

Full record on ClinicalTrials.gov

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