Testing Psychosocial Treatment Planning Methods for Youth Anxiety and Depression

Summary

Youth depression and anxiety represent a serious public health concern, with affected youth often experiencing social, familial, and academic impairment. Research evidence supports a growing array of effective treatments for youth depression and anxiety, yet as the collection of evidence-based treatments expands, so do the challenges of utilizing the evidence: clinicians must be able to (1) access, integrate, and apply the available evidence, and (2) engage in a collaborative process with each family to develop a plan that is responsive to each family's unique characteristics, preferences, and goals. Engaging caregivers and youths as active collaborators in the treatment planning process is a patient-centered approach with the potential to improve the process and outcome of youth mental health care by facilitating the personalization of established evidence-based treatment approaches. Such collaboration, frequently referred to as shared decision-making (SDM), is a hallmark of evidence-based practice and a key feature of federal guidelines for health care delivery. However, despite growing rhetorical support for SDM, empirical support is lacking, particularly in the area of youth mental health treatment. The absence of such research is unfortunate, given the potential for SDM to facilitate the dissemination and implementation of evidence-based treatments, and to personalize the use of established treatments to increase acceptability, retention, satisfaction, and overall effectiveness.

The present project tests the feasibility and acceptability of SDM through a pilot randomized controlled trial of 40 youths (ages 7-15) meeting diagnostic criteria for an anxiety or depressive disorder. The trial will compare an evidence-based treatment that is planned collaboratively with youths and caregivers using the SDM protocol, to an evidence-based treatment that is planned by the clinician and supervisor using pretreatment assessment data. Eligible youths will received up to 26 treatment sessions at no cost and complete assessments prior to the start of treatment, at the end of treatment, and six months following the end of treatment.

Conditions

• Anxiety Disorders
• Depressive Disorder

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Modular Approach to Therapy for Children (MATCH)

MATCH is a collection of 31 modules that correspond to the treatment procedures included in standard evidence-based treatments for youth depression, anxiety, and behavioral disorders.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)

  collaborator NIH

• Boston University Charles River Campus

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• David A Langer, Ph.D. · Boston University

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

HEALTH_SERVICES_RESEARCH

Masking

SINGLE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

7 Years

Max Age

15 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2016-10-04

Primary Completion

2019-02-20

Completion

2019-08-27

Countries

• United States

Study Locations