Individual therapy attrition rates in a low-intensity service: a comparison of cognitive behavioural and person-centred therapies and the impact of deprivation.

BACKGROUND: This paper looks at attrition in relation to deprivation and type of therapy - CBT or person-centred counselling. METHOD: Case notes of all those referred in a 4-month period (n = 497) were assessed for those who failed to opt-in; those who opted-in but failed to attend first appointment and those who attended first appointment but subsequently dropped-out. RESULTS: Significant numbers failed to opt-in, attend first appointment or dropped out during therapy. There were no differences between CBT and PCT. Those from the most deprived areas were less likely to opt-in. CONCLUSIONS: We need to develop better approaches to attracting and maintaining contact with individuals complaining of common mental health problems.

Comparisons of the Factor Structure and Measurement Invariance of the Spence Children's Anxiety Scale-Parent Version in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder and Typically Developing Anxious Children.

The Spence Children's Anxiety Scale-Parent version (SCAS-P) is often used to assess anxiety in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), however, little is known about the validity of the tool in this population. The aim of this study was to determine whether the SCAS-P has the same factorial validity in a sample of young people with ASD (n = 285), compared to a sample of typically developing young people with anxiety disorders (n = 224). Poor model fit with all of the six hypothesised models precluded invariance testing. Exploratory factor analysis indicated that different anxiety phenomenology characterises the two samples. The findings suggest that cross-group comparisons between ASD and anxious samples based on the SCAS-P scores may not always be appropriate.