A Randomized Controlled Trial of PCIT-ED for Preschool Depression

Parent Child Interaction Therapy Emotion Development (PCIT-ED) will be conducted with a
sample of preschoolers who exhibit symptoms of depression compared to a wait list (WL)
control after which participants will receive the active treatment. PCIT-ED is an expansion
of PCIT, a well-known, widely used and proven effective treatment for preschool disruptive
disorders. To address early disturbances of mood and affect, a novel ED module was added
based on empirical data in emotion development. The ED module targets parent emotion learning
skills with the goal of training the parent to serve as a more effective emotion teacher and
coach to the child. The goal of the ED module is to enhance the child's capacity for emotion
recognition and regulation or "emotional competence." In order to test the efficacy of
PCIT-ED, to estimate accurate effect sizes and to investigate mediators and moderators of
treatment response participants will complete comprehensive pre-, interval, and
post-assessments.

Preschoolers over 3 will be offered the option of enrolling in an add-on
electroencephalography and magnetic resonance imagery study, to investigate neural changes
associated with PCIT-ED.

Compared to those randomized to the WL, preschoolers who undergo PCIT-ED will show
significantly increased rates of remission, greater reductions in MDD symptoms, and decreases
in impairment; and will show significantly greater increases in emotional competence measured
by the ability to accurately identify emotions in themselves and others and the ability to
effectively regulate intense emotions. Compared to those on the WL, parents who undergo
PCIT-ED will show significantly greater increases in emotion skill learning and reductions in
MDD symptoms and parenting stress.