Effectiveness of the Early Adolescent Skills for Emotions (EASE) Intervention in Alleviating Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of Randomized Controlled Trials

Introduction The Lancet Commission noted severe mental health service disparities in low- and middle-income countries facing crises. Regarding this, the World Health Organization (WHO) developed the early adolescent skills for emotions (EASE), an experimental group-based intervention delivered by non-specialists, to offer evidence-based psychological support for adolescents with mental distress. Objectives This systematic review and meta-analysis assesses EASE’s effectiveness in alleviating post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) compared with enhanced treatment as usual (ETAU). Methods We systematically searched PubMed, Cochrane, and Scopus for randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing EASE with ETAU. Our outcomes included the overall improvement in post-traumatic and depressive symptoms, measured by the Children’s Revised Impact of Event Scale (CRIES-13) and the Patient Health Questionnaire-Adolescent version (PHQ-A) scores respectively. We pooled mean differences (MD) with 95% confidence intervals (CI) in RStudio using a random-effects model. Heterogeneity was assessed with I² statistics. Results Six RCTs were included with 1,417 patients, of whom 642 (45.3%) received EASE treatment. In 67% of the studies, Syria was the main location of RCT’s. A total of 688(49%) were female. CRIES-13 (MD = -0.18, 95% CI [-1.88, 1.52], p = 0.84, I² = 0%; Figure 1) and PHQ-A (MD = -0.69, 95% CI [-1.47, 0.09], p = 0.08, I² = 15%; Figure 2) scores in the EASE intervention group compared to the ETAU group showed no significant difference. In both outcomes the heterogeneity was low. Image 1: Image 2: Conclusions The benefit of EASE in improving mental distress in adolescents is uncertain. Additional trials will provide new evidence for EASE potential therapeutic benefits. Disclosure of Interest None Declared