Clinical outcomes and cost-effectiveness of brief guided parent-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy and solution-focused brief therapy for treatment of childhood anxiety disorders: a randomised controlled trial

Publication date: Available online 17 May 2017 Source:The Lancet Psychiatry Author(s): Cathy Creswell, Mara Violato, Hannah Fairbanks, Elizabeth White, Monika Parkinson, Gemma Abitabile, Alessandro Leidi, Peter J Cooper Background Half of all lifetime anxiety disorders emerge before age 12 years; however, access to evidence-based psychological therapies for affected children is poor. We aimed to compare the clinical outcomes and cost-effectiveness of two brief psychological treatments for children with anxiety referred to routine child mental health settings. We hypothesised that brief guided parent-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) would be associated with better clinical outcomes than solution-focused brief therapy and would be cost-effective. Methods We did this randomised controlled trial at four National Health Service primary child and mental health services in Oxfordshire, UK. Children aged 5–12 years referred for anxiety difficulties were randomly allocated (1:1), via a secure online minimisation tool, to receive brief guided parent-delivered CBT or solution-focused brief therapy, with minimisation for age, sex, anxiety severity, and level of parental anxiety. The allocation sequence was not accessible to the researcher enrolling participants or to study assessors. Research staff who obtained outcome measurements were masked to group allocation and clinical staff who delivered the intervention did not measure outcomes. The primary outcome was ...
Source: The Lancet Psychiatry - Category: Psychiatry Source Type: research