Anxious Children and Adolescents Non-responding to CBT: Clinical Predictors and Families' Experiences of Therapy.

The purpose of the study was to examine clinical predictors of non-response to manualized cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) among youths (children and adolescents) with anxiety disorders, and to explore families' perspective on therapy, using a mixed methods approach. Non-response to manualized group CBT was determined among 106 youths of Danish ethnicity (7-17 years old) with a primary anxiety disorder, identified with the Clinical Global Impression of Improvement Scale at the 3-month follow-up. Twenty-four youths (22.6 %) had not responded to treatment, and a logistic regression analysis revealed that youths with a primary diagnosis of social phobia were seven times more likely not to respond, whereas youths with a comorbid mood disorder were almost four times more likely. Families of non-responding youths with primary social phobia and/or a comorbid mood disorder (n = 15) were interviewed, and data were analysed through interpretative phenomenological analysis. Two superordinate themes emerged: youths were not involved in therapy work, and manualized group format posed challenges to families. The mixed methods approach provided new perspectives on the difficulties that may be encountered by families of non-responding youths with a primary social phobia diagnosis and youths with a comorbid mood disorder during manualized group CBT. Clinical implications related to youths' clinical characteristics, and families' experience and suggestions are drawn. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. KEY PRACTITIONER MESSAGES: Youths with an anxiety disorder, who had a primary social phobia diagnosis and those, who had a comorbid mood disorder, were more likely not to respond to manualized group CBT. Parents of those non-responding youths often considered them as motivated to overcome their difficulties, but due to their symptomatology, they were unreceptive, reluctant and ambivalent and therefore not actively involved in therapy. The non-responding youths with social phobia felt evaluated and nervous of what others thought of them in the group. The parents of the non-responding youths with a comorbid mood disorder felt the group format placed restraints on therapists' ability to focus on their individual needs.

Pre-treatment child and family characteristics as predictors of outcome in cognitive behavioural therapy for youth anxiety disorders.

BACKGROUND: Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) has been found to be effective for children and adolescents (6-18 years) with anxiety disorders, but the non-response rate is high-a fact that may argue for the importance of studies on pre-treatment characteristics of children and their families that predict treatment outcome. AIMS: To provide a systematic review of clinical and demographic pre-treatment child and family predictors of treatment outcome in CBT for anxiety disorders in youth. METHOD: A systematic literature search was conducted based on electronic databases (PsycINFO, Embase and PubMed), and retrieved studies were analysed according to the box-score method of counting significant findings. RESULTS: 24 studies with a sample size ≥ 60 were located. Most studies dealt with the following predictors: child age, gender, comorbidity, symptom severity and parental psychopathology. There was some evidence that a higher degree of pre-treatment symptomatic severity and non-anxiety comorbidity predicted higher end-state severity, but not a lesser degree of improvement. There was some but inconsistent support for a negative influence of parental psychopathology. CONCLUSION: Studies on pre-treatment child and family predictors of outcome in CBT for youth anxiety disorders have until now resulted in few findings of clinical or theoretical significance.

Parents' difficulties as co-therapists in CBT among non-responding youths with anxiety disorders: Parent and therapist experiences.

No increased effect has been associated with parent involvement in cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) for youths with anxiety disorders. The purpose of this study was to explore parent and therapist experiences of CBT among non-responding youths with anxiety disorders, with a primary focus on parent involvement in therapy. Interpretative phenomenological analysis was applied to 24 sets of semi-structured interviews with families and therapists of anxiety-disordered youths who had not profited from CBT with parental inclusion. From the superordinate theme parents' difficulties acting as co-therapists, which emerged from the analyses, two master themes represented the perspectives of parents (difficulty working together with the youth and feeling unqualified, with limited resources), and two represented the perspectives of therapists (family dynamics stood in the way of progress and difficulty transferring control to parents). Parent and therapist experiences complemented each other, offering two different perspectives on parent difficulties as co-therapists. However, the two groups' views on their respective roles in therapy were in conflict. Parents wished to remain being "just the parents" and for the experts to take over, while therapists wished to act as facilitators transferring the control to parents. Clinical implications are drawn for parental involvement and enhancement of treatment outcomes for likely non-responders.