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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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 August 2025

V. Astori ,
B. Westphalen Pomianoski ,
D. Lopes Vieira ,
M. Prätzel Ellwanger  and
M. Frizzo Messinger
V. Astori*
Affiliation:
Escola Superior de Ciências da Santa Casa de Misericórdia de Vitória, Vitória
B. Westphalen Pomianoski
Affiliation:
Universidade Nove de Julho, São Paulo
D. Lopes Vieira
Affiliation:
Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte
M. Prätzel Ellwanger
Affiliation:
Universidade do Contestado, Mafra
M. Frizzo Messinger
Affiliation:
Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul, Porto Alegre, Brazil
*
*Corresponding author.

Abstract

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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

Information

Type
Abstract
Information
European Psychiatry , Volume 68 , Special Issue S1: Abstracts of the 33rd European Congress of Psychiatry , April 2025 , pp. S146
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of European Psychiatric Association
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