Background: Challenging behaviours are common among children and adolescents with intellectual disabilities. Such behaviours often result in poor quality of life outcomes such as physical injury, difficulties with relationships and community integration. Aim: This systematic review aimed to synthesise evidence from studies that assessed the effect…

Suicide prevention programs delivered in school settings have been shown to reduce suicide attempts and ideation among adolescents. School-based digital interventions targeting at-risk youth are a promising avenue for suicide prevention, and some evidence has shown that blending digital and face-to-face components may improve the effectiveness.…

Cognitive bias modification (CBM) is increasingly used to target cognitive biases related to internalising or externalising problems, which are common in neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD). This systematic review assesses the available evidence for using CBM in children and young people with NDD, in particular regarding ambiguous interpersonal…

Objective: Uptake, adherence, and dropout rates for Internet-based programs for depression are in need of improvement. Excessive user burden (eg, heavy content, extended duration) may undermine engagement and precipitate dropout. To address this problem, an alternative format was proposed: Brief Interactive Training Sessions (BITS). BITS target a…

The final year of secondary school has been shown to be associated with heightened student stress. Psychological interventions have been shown to be effective in reducing and preventing distress in students during this school period, although the widespread adoption of these interventions into school settings is limited. There have been recent…

This study examined the effects of cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT), mindful yoga and positive psychology interventions and identified common psychotherapeutic elements that exert critical treatment effects on Hong Kong Chinese students with special educational needs (SENs). Forty-seven participants received CBT intervention while 42 and 41…

The Alternative Suspension Therapy (AST) program is a trauma-informed, in-school discipline model that was designed to serve as an alternative to traditional suspension. The goal of the AST program was to minimize or eliminate the number of referrals a student might receive that could possibly lead to suspension. The participants in the AST…

Background: Children within historically disadvantaged non-Western South African communities are considered as particularly vulnerable to the development of anxiety problems. Although the need for accessible mental health interventions is evident, this need has remained unmet in a country with extreme socio-economic disparities and a lack of…

Background: Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and intellectual disability evidence significant anxiety. This study aimed to adapt a group cognitive behaviour therapies (CBT) programme designed for youth with ASD and anxiety to meet the cognitive, communication, and behavioural needs of adolescents with intellectual disability, and…

The breadth of available non-pharmacological interventions for autistic children, with varying evidence for efficacy summarised in multiple systematic reviews, creates challenges for parents, practitioners, and policymakers in navigating the research evidence. In this article, we report the findings of an umbrella review of 58 systematic reviews…

This study examined the association between two implementation factors, nurse-reported intervention adherence and self-efficacy, and children's outcomes in school nurse-delivered anxiety interventions. Data were collected in a pilot randomized controlled effectiveness trial with 54 children and 21 school nurses. Nurses implemented either a…

The COVID-19 pandemic has led to governments around the world imposing varying levels of restrictions and lockdowns leading to home confinement and closure of schools. Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and their families may be particularly susceptible to increased anxiety. A growing evidence base has developed for parent-led…

Approximately 70% of 67,367 drug overdose deaths involved opioids with rates 4 times higher than in 1999. The purpose of this systematic review is to assess the effectiveness of psychosocial interventions in opioid cessation. The search criteria for this review were: (a) published in English language between 2014 and 2019; (b) indexed in…

This triple-arm, double-blind, randomized clinical trial investigated the effect of multisession prefrontal transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on social functioning in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A total of 105 individuals (age 14-21 years) diagnosed with ASD were randomized into the active-tDCS, sham-tDCS, and…

Over the last decade, sleep quality becomes serious issue in academic research. There was an increasing number of interventions conducted to improve sleep quality. Objective: This review aims to provide a better understanding on how the intervention on sleep quality develops and to explore the effectiveness of those intervention strategies among…