Why Is It Easier to Get Mad Than It Is to Feel Sad? Pilot Study of Regulation-Focused Psychotherapy for Children

What is it about?

Highlights • Oppositional defiant disorder is the leading reason for referral to youth mental health services. • There is a need for treatments that are cost-effective, foster treatment completion, and address the implicit emotion regulation deficits that are pervasive in oppositional defiant disorder. • Regulation-Focused Psychotherapy for Children (RFP-C) is a manualized, psychodynamic treatment for children that reduces symptoms of oppositional defiant disorder and activates more adaptive forms of implicit emotion regulation. • This pilot study provides preliminary support for the efficacy of RFP-C and lays the groundwork for a larger scale randomized controlled trial of the intervention.

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