TY - JOUR
T1 - Research Reviews
T2 - Advances in methods for evaluating child and adolescent mental health interventions
AU - Pickles, Andrew
AU - Edwards, Danielle
AU - Horvath, Levente
AU - Emsley, Richard
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by the UK Department of Health and the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) through the Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre at the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust and King's College London, NIHR Senior Investigator funding to A.P. (NF‐SI‐0617‐10120) and an NIHR Research Professorship to R.E. (NIHR300051). The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care. The authors have declared that they have no competing or potential conflicts of interest.
Funding Information:
This work was supported by the UK Department of Health and the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) through the Maudsley Biomedical Research Centre at the South London and Maudsley NHS Trust and King's College London, NIHR Senior Investigator funding to A.P. (NF-SI-0617-10120) and an NIHR Research Professorship to R.E. (NIHR300051). The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care. The authors have declared that they have no competing or potential conflicts of interest. Key points The evidence base for interventions for child mental health and behavioural disorders is often weak and needs to be strengthened more quickly. Trials in child mental health are commonly more expensive than in other areas of medicine. Novel measurements and designs need to be adopted to reduce these costs and increase our capacity to test interventions. Closer working with target participant populations is required to allow trials to evaluate interventions for outcomes that are desired. Editors and reviewers need to enforce higher standards of rigour, especially in reporting. The capacity to deliver strengthened evidence requires a more organised patient, clinical, educational, statistical and informatic infrastructure for trials and evaluation. The evidence base for interventions for child mental health and behavioural disorders is often weak and needs to be strengthened more quickly. Trials in child mental health are commonly more expensive than in other areas of medicine. Novel measurements and designs need to be adopted to reduce these costs and increase our capacity to test interventions. Closer working with target participant populations is required to allow trials to evaluate interventions for outcomes that are desired. Editors and reviewers need to enforce higher standards of rigour, especially in reporting. The capacity to deliver strengthened evidence requires a more organised patient, clinical, educational, statistical and informatic infrastructure for trials and evaluation.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors. Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Association for Child and Adolescent Mental Health.
PY - 2023/12
Y1 - 2023/12
N2 - BACKROUND: The evidence base for interventions for child mental health and neurodevelopment is weak and the current capacity for rigorous evaluation limited. We describe some of the challenges that make this field particularly difficult and expensive for evaluation studies.METHODS: We describe and review the use of novel study designs and analysis methodology for their potential to improve this situation.RESULTS: While several novel designs appeared ill-suited to our field, systematic review found others that offered potential but had yet to be widely adopted, some not at all.CONCLUSIONS: While funding is inevitably a constraint, we argue that improvements in the evidence base of both current and new treatments will only be achieved by the adoption of a number of these new technologies and study designs, the consistent application of rigorous constructive but demanding standards, and the engagement of the public, patients, clinical and research services to build a design, recruitment, and analysis infrastructure.
AB - BACKROUND: The evidence base for interventions for child mental health and neurodevelopment is weak and the current capacity for rigorous evaluation limited. We describe some of the challenges that make this field particularly difficult and expensive for evaluation studies.METHODS: We describe and review the use of novel study designs and analysis methodology for their potential to improve this situation.RESULTS: While several novel designs appeared ill-suited to our field, systematic review found others that offered potential but had yet to be widely adopted, some not at all.CONCLUSIONS: While funding is inevitably a constraint, we argue that improvements in the evidence base of both current and new treatments will only be achieved by the adoption of a number of these new technologies and study designs, the consistent application of rigorous constructive but demanding standards, and the engagement of the public, patients, clinical and research services to build a design, recruitment, and analysis infrastructure.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85173549615&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/jcpp.13892
DO - 10.1111/jcpp.13892
M3 - Review article
C2 - 37793673
SN - 0021-9630
VL - 64
SP - 1765
EP - 1775
JO - Journal of child psychology and psychiatry
JF - Journal of child psychology and psychiatry
IS - 12
ER -
