Cognitive-Behavioural Therapy for Adolescents With Impulsive Aggressive Behaviour: A Randomised Controlled Trial.

INTRODUCTION

Impulsive aggressive behaviour is highly prevalent among children and adolescents referred to mental health clinics. However, there is limited evidence-based psychotherapeutic interventions for its treatment. This study examined the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) for adolescents with intermittent explosive disorder (IED).

METHODS

This randomised controlled trial employed a pre-test/post-test design with a 3-month follow-up. Forty-two adolescents diagnosed with IED were recruited through purposive sampling and randomly assigned to either a CBT intervention group or a wait-list control group. Assessments were conducted at baseline, post-treatment and follow-up. The intervention group received 12 weekly CBT sessions.

RESULTS

ANCOVA analyses showed significant group differences in overt aggression, hostile automatic thoughts, emotion dysregulation, impulse control and global functioning. Compared with the wait-list group, adolescents receiving CBT demonstrated lower levels of aggressive behaviour, hostile cognitions, hostile bias and emotion regulation difficulties, along with shorter stop-signal reaction times and longer stop-signal delay times. They also exhibited improved global functioning. Repeated-measures ANOVA confirmed that these therapeutic gains were maintained over the 3-month follow-up period.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings indicate that when CBT is delivered comprehensively in a multicomponent format targeting maladaptive cognitions, emotion dysregulation and self-control deficits, it can serve as an effective intervention for adolescents with IED.