About the project

The main aim of TREATme is a European multidisciplinary researcher network focusing on individualized psychotherapy for young people with mental disorders. Researchers from 30 European countries participates. TREATme started out as a COST-funded ACtion. After the end of the funding period by the end of 2021, the researcher network continues the work.

50% of lifetime mental health disorders start by the age of 14, and the number increases to 75% by the age of 24. Mental disorders in youth are associated with direct and indirect costs including personal distress, costs to family and friends, high healthcare costs, barriers to employment and job performance, poverty and economic deprivation and social exclusion.

The “Roadmap for Mental Health Research in Europe” concludes on the need for coordinated and multidisciplinary efforts to improve knowledge on individualized psychological treatment for young people. Psychotherapy works for the most frequent mental disorders such as anxiety and depression. Different psychotherapy modalities work on average equally well. However, little is known about how different treatment modalities work (the mechanisms of change/mediators) and for whom (specific markers/moderators). Thus, empirically informed individualized treatment cannot be delivered.

The researcher network reviews the state of the art and identifies putative specific markers and mechanisms of change in different psychotherapy modalities, as well as suitable psychotherapy process and treatment measures, and study designs. Research capacity increases by supporting a high proportion of Early Careers Investigators (ECI) and especially female and Inclusiveness Target Countries (ITC) researchers. Shared knowledge is disseminated to policy makers and stakeholders.

The network promotes collaborative funding applications and meets societal challenges connected to mental health. TREATme paves the way for the matching of mental health research to the needs of young people in Europe.

Download TREATme's Memorandum of Understanding for further information.

Objectives

TREATme arises from nationally funded research groups and will bring together researchers, clinicians, non-governmental organizations (NGO), and policy makers.

The aims are to exchange and disseminate specific knowledge about important factors that will improve outcome in different youth psychotherapy modes, as well as about how to best design psychotherapy studies that can increase knowledge about what works for whom and how in youth psychotherapy.

The COST Action is a pan-European multidisciplinary network with participants from Europe and beyond, focusing on an urgent topic in psychotherapy research. The COST Action will promote coordinated and collaborative research activities and funding applications on personalized treatment for young people with mental health problems in Europe. This will be achieved by the following partial task objectives during the course of the Action:

Share scientific knowledge on treatment and research methods in psychotherapy for young persons

The Action will increase scientific knowledge across Europe on psychotherapy with young persons, the need for psychotherapy research and more specific knowledge on personalized treatment in different COST Countries with different treatments in use and differing mental health care systems.

The members of the Action will propose adapted research study designs in order to facilitate effective co-ordination and harmonization of research in psychotherapy for young people by:

• Identifying putative specific markers, mechanisms of change and adequate assessment tools in psychotherapy research for young persons

• Achieve consensus on core measures

• Provide advice on adequate study designs. This will promote collaborative research among members of the Action Network

Promote the sustainability of the network beyond the life of the Action

The Action will establish sustainable synergies among European research projects on how to do research on personalized treatment for adolescents and young adults and disseminate results in the following ways:

• Encourage network members to develop collaborative funding applications, for example from the European research program Horizon 2020

• Continue the liaison established among psychotherapy researchers after the duration of the Action

• Maintain the planned Action website as a sustained open resource for researchers, clinicians and policy makers.

These objects are specific, and will be possible to measure because the goals are concrete and visible.

Support a high proportion of ECIs and especially female and ITC researchers in the COST Action

Early Careers Investigators (ECIs), female and Inclusiveness Target Countries (ITCs) researchers will be encouraged by Action members to participate in Training Schools (TSs) and Short Term Scientific Missions (STSMs).

This objective will be conducted through the Website, conferences, local workshops, and by research and private institutions.

The training and mentoring of an emerging group of ECIs will be a measurable outcome of this objective.

Organization

The TREATme Management Structure involves three levels

• Core Group (CG) - includes the Action Chair, the Vise-chair, the Work Group (WG) leaders, and the contact point-coordinator. The CG is a collective "orchestra conductor", giving the pulse to the whole Action. It's main tasks are to ensure a translation of overall principles, criteria and goals into necessary day-to-day practical operations. Members of the CG have regular conference calls on a monthly basis. Their role is to ensure the necessary coordination between the scientific activities of the different Working Groups.

  • Randi Ulberg (Norway), Network Chair
  • Vera Gergov (Finland), Network Vice-Chair
  • Tamara Prevendar (Croatioa), Leader Working Group 1
  • Jana Volkert, Leader Working Group 2
  • Fredrik Falkenström (Sweden), Leader Working Group 3
  • Camellia Hancheva (Bulgaria), Leader Working Group 4

• Working Groups (WG) - each WG is chaired by a Leader and one (or more) Vice-leaders. The Leaders were elected by the MC during its first meeting, the Vice-leaders are elected within each WG. The WG's organize the scientific work of the Action, including the main events.The WG-leaders have agreed to fulfill their responsibilities based on the principles and guidelines described in the following Code of Conduct. They are ultimately responsible for the inclusion of the new members and the allocation of scarce funds concerning the participation to the Action's meetings.

• Management Committee (MC) - MC includes the Action Chair, Vice-chair, Work Group-leaders, and all Network members. In the MC all formal decisions are taken, such as approval of the leaders of the Network. The MC will ensure that the overall principles for the Network and scientific collaboration, and goals set for the work, are respected.

Working Groups

Background

The rationale for establishing the five WGs is the need to exchange knowledge and expertise between nationally funded research groups and perform systematic reviews, meta-analyses, and guidelines.

This exchange will enable coordination of European efforts in determining which psychotherapy treatments will be most effective for each young individual (in the age range from 14–30 years) depending on the person’s developmental stage and needs. The exchange of knowledge will also help reveal the interaction effects between different psychotherapy modes and individual specific markers, as well as, the specific mechanisms of change that are involved in the process of youth therapy.

In order for the WGs to best achieve their aims, they will include multi-disciplinary researcher groups, clinicians, psychotherapy training institutions, and representatives from young mental health user organisations.

WG1 and WG2 are closely related and will perform collaborative literature reviews and work closely together. WG3 and WG4 will work closely together and build their work on results from WG1 and WG2. WG5 works closely with MC and WG1-4.

Overview of the working groups:

Working Group 1: Specific Markers (Moderators)

Working Group 2: Mechanisms of Change (Mediators)

Working Group 3: Age Customized Process and Treatment Measures

Working Group 4: Age customized research designs

Annual meeting

Dissemination

Video interviews

On this page you can watch videos with people from all over Europe.

Authorship guidelines

The aim of this set of principles is to facilitate decisions on authorship concerning all publications and presentations from TREATme after the COST Action (PDF).

Financing

The Action is funded by COST (European Cooperation in Science and Technology) from 2017 – 2021, and continues with research activities after the end of the funding period.

Cooperation

The participating parties in the TREATme has members from 30 European countries.

The partnerships with the Child, Adolescent, and Family Therapy Research (CAFTR) network of the Society for Psychotherapy Research (SPR) was established during the Action and continues through ongoing meetings and the dissemination events.

Read more about TREATme

TREATme is presented as a success story on the COST website. TREATme has been chosen by COST as a success story and is presented by a 'long read' article on the COST website: 

Action sustainability works when there is a real community behind, and this is the case of CA16102. So, when an Action combines excellent scientific outcomes, and also manages to develop a long-lasting community, it is the win-win result COST is looking for. 

TREATme’s COST Science Officer, Dr. Giuseppe Lugano

Publications