Substance use outcomes from the Child/Adolescent Anxiety Multimodal Extended Long-term Study (CAMELS).

BACKGROUND: Substance use problems and anxiety disorders are both highly prevalent and frequently cooccur in youth. The present study examined the benefits of successful anxiety treatment at 3-12 years after treatment completion on substance use outcomes (i.e. diagnoses and lifetime expected use). METHODS: The sample was from the Child/Adolescent Anxiety Multimodal Extended Long-term Study (CAMELS), a naturalistic follow-up study to the Child/Adolescent Anxiety Multimodal Study (CAMS) which randomized youth to cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT; Coping cat), medication (sertraline), their combination, or pill placebo. The first CAMELS visit occurred an average of 6.5 years following CAMS randomization. Participants were 319 youth (65.4% of the CAMS sample), aged 7-17 years at CAMS baseline assessment with a mean age of 17.6 years (range: 11-26 years) at the time of the first CAMELS follow-up. Substance use outcomes included diagnoses as well as lifetime substance use (i.e. alcohol and tobacco use). RESULTS: Eleven of 319 (3.4%) CAMELS participants were diagnosed with a substance use disorder at the initial follow-up visit. When compared to the population lifetime rate of 11.4%, the rate of diagnoses in the posttreated sample was significantly lower. Additionally, rates of lifetime alcohol use were lower than population rates at the initial and final follow-up visits. Rates of lifetime tobacco use were similarly lower than lifetime population rates at the initial visit (driven by significantly lower rates in the CBT treatment condition), but higher by the final visit. Furthermore, treatment remission (but not treatment response) was associated with a lower rate of substance use diagnoses at the initial follow-up visit, although rates of lifetime alcohol and tobacco use did not differ by treatment outcome. CONCLUSIONS: Anxiety treatments confer a beneficial impact on problematic substance use (i.e. diagnoses) as well as on expected substance use (i.e. alcohol and tobacco use) for on average, a period of 6.5 years.

Consultation Content and Techniques for measurement-Based Care Implementation in Youth Community Mental Health Settings.

Measurement-based care (MBC) is an evidence-based practice (EBP) focused on regularly administering outcome measures to clients to inform clinical decision making. While MBC shows promise for improving youth treatment outcomes, therapist adoption remains low. Clinical consultation is one strategy that improves MBC implementation, but our limited understanding of consultation hinders the ability to optimize its impact. This research explored the content of, and techniques used during MBC consultation calls. Therapists (N = 55) in a randomized controlled trial treating adolescents with anxiety and/or depression were trained to utilize MBC with usual treatment using the Youth Outcome Questionnaire (YOQ) through an online measurement feedback system (MFS). Weekly ongoing consultation followed an initial workshop training in MBC. Case discussions (N = 294) during consultation calls were coded using a developed codebook, including 12 content and 10 consultant techniques. Results indicated that content focused predominantly on interpretation of client symptom and alliance report, planning for YOQ administration, and discussion of data with clients in session. Common consultant techniques included modeling and eliciting report viewing and interpretation, making clinical suggestions, and didactics about clinical and technical issues. Notably, role-play/behavioral rehearsal was not used. The prevalence of passive consultation techniques (suggestions, didactics) suggests a focus on teaching rather than active techniques (behavioral rehearsal, modeling), potentially influenced by the novelty of MBC and MFS. Technical aspects of MBC, such as measure administration and system usage, emerged as key consultation content, highlighting an unanticipated emphasis on logistics over clinical implementation. These findings underscore the evolving role of consultation in supporting MBC implementation and suggest that addressing technical challenges early in training might enhance adoption.

Anxiety symptom trajectories from treatment to 5- to 12-year follow-up across childhood and adolescence.

OBJECTIVE: The current study examined trajectories of anxiety during (a) acute treatment and (b) extended follow-up to better characterize the long-term symptom trajectories of youth who received evidence-based intervention for anxiety disorders using a person-centered approach. METHOD: Participants were 319 youth (age 7-17 years at enrollment), who participated in a multicenter randomized controlled trial for the treatment of pediatric anxiety disorders, Child/Adolescent Anxiety Multimodal Study, and a 4-year naturalistic follow-up, Child/Adolescent Anxiety Multimodal Extended Long-term Study, an average of 6.5 years later. Using growth mixture modeling, the study identified distinct trajectories of anxiety across acute treatment (Weeks 0-12), posttreatment (Weeks 12-36), and the 4-year-long follow-up, and identified baseline predictors of these trajectories. RESULTS: Three nonlinear anxiety trajectories emerged: "short-term responders" who showed rapid treatment response but had higher levels of anxiety during the extended follow-up; "durable responders" who sustained treatment gains; and "delayed remitters" who did not show an initial response to treatment, but showed low levels of anxiety during the maintenance and extended follow-up periods. Worse anxiety severity and better family functioning at baseline predicted membership in the delayed remitters group. Caregiver strain differentiated short-term responders from durable responders. CONCLUSIONS: Findings suggest that initial response to treatment does not guarantee sustained treatment gains over time for some youth. Future follow-up studies that track treated youth across key developmental transitions and in the context of changing social environments are needed to inform best practices for the long-term management of anxiety.

Treatment Engagement in Adolescents: The Associations of Sociodemographic Characteristics, Caregiver Perceived Barriers, and Clinical Impairment.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the associations between sociodemographic characteristics, perceived barriers to treatment, clinical impairment, and youth treatment engagement. METHOD: Participants included 196 families (youth: ages 12 to 18; 64.3% cis-gender female; 23.5% Black, 60.7% White, and 12.2% Mixed/Other race; 41.3% Hispanic or Latinx ethnicity) recruited as part of a comparative effectiveness trial for adolescent anxiety and depression. Self-report measures of sociodemographic characteristics and caregiver perceived barriers were completed at intake. Youth clinical impairment was assessed at baseline via clinical interview. Measures of engagement were collected throughout treatment, including initiation status, session attendance, and termination status. Relationships were examined using analyses of variances and hierarchal linear and logistic modeling. RESULTS: Perceived barriers did not differ by sociodemographic characteristics. Greater perceived stressors and obstacles predicted fewer sessions attended and a lower likelihood of successful termination. Youth of caregivers with an advanced degree and those with caregivers who were employed part time attended more sessions and were more likely to initiate and terminate treatment successfully compared to youth with caregivers of a lower education level or student or unemployed status. At higher levels of youth clinical impairment, greater perceived treatment demands and issues predicted reduced likelihood of treatment initiation. CONCLUSIONS: Perceived barriers, sociodemographic characteristics, and clinical impairment were all associated with levels of engagement in the treatment process. Baseline and continued assessment of perceived and experienced barriers to treatment may promote individualized strategies for families identified as at-risk for reduced engagement.

External and Internal Validity Considerations in Youth Effectiveness Trials: Lessons Learned from the COMET Study.

OBJECTIVE: Effectiveness trials aim to increase the generalizability and public health impact of interventions. However, challenges associated with this design present threats to external and internal validity. This paper illustrates these challenges using data from a two-site randomized effectiveness trial, the Community Study of Outcome Monitoring for Emotional Disorders in Teens (COMET) and presents recommendations for future research. METHOD: COMET was a randomized effectiveness trial conducted in 19 community mental health clinics in two states comparing three interventions: treatment as usual (TAU), TAU with measurement-based care (TAU+), and the Unified Protocol forTransdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders in Adolescents with MBC (UPA). Participants included 176 clinicians (mean age = 35.5; 85.8% cisgender female; 53.0% racially and/or ethnically minorized) and 196 adolescents (mean age = 14.7; 65.3% cisgender female; 69.4% racially and/or ethnically minorized). Analyses outlined participant flow from recruitment to study completion, described participant characteristics, and examined site differences. RESULTS: Analysis of participant flow suggested that recruitment and retention of clinicians and adolescents was challenging, raising questions about whether participants were representative of participating clinics. Both the clinician and adolescent samples were racially and ethnically diverse and adolescents were low income and clinically complex. Significant site differences were observed in clinician and adolescent characteristics. CONCLUSIONS: While this study was successful in recruiting a diverse and historically under-represented sample, difficulties in recruitment and retention raise questions about external validity and site differences present challenges to internal validity of study findings. Suggestions for future effectiveness studies, drawing from implementation science approaches, are discussed.

Do youth anxiety measures assess the same construct consistently throughout treatment? Results are...complicated.

Interventionists interpret changes in symptoms as reflecting response to treatment. However, changes in symptom functioning and the measurement of the underlying constructs may be reflected in reported change. Longitudinal measurement invariance (LMI) is a statistical approach that assesses the degree to which measures consistently capture the same construct over time. We examined LMI in measures of anxiety severity/symptoms [i.e., Pediatric Anxiety Rating Scale (PARS), Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children (MASC), Screen for Child Anxiety and Related Disorders (SCARED)] in anxious youth at baseline and posttreatment. Initial fit was inadequate for 27 of 38 baseline and posttreatment models, but model modifications resulted in acceptable fit. Tests of LMI supported scalar invariance for the PARS and many, but not all, MASC and SCARED subscales. Findings suggest that the PARS, and many MASC and SCARED subscales can accurately be used to measure change over time, however, others may reflect changes in measurement properties.

Consultation as an Implementation Strategy to Increase Fidelity of Measurement-Based Care Delivery in Community Mental Health Settings: An Observational Study.

Regularly administering outcome measures to clients to inform clinical decision making, referred to as measurement-based care (MBC), has the potential to improve mental health treatment due to its applicability across disorders and treatment settings. Given the utility of MBC, understanding predictors of high-fidelity MBC implementation is important. Training and consultation are widely used implementation strategies to increase the fidelity of evidence-based practice delivery but have rarely been studied with MBC. The current study will examine the relationship between time clinicians spent discussing a case in consultation ("dosage") and MBC fidelity. Thirty clinicians and 56 youth were in the MBC condition of a randomized controlled trial and completed baseline questionnaires. Consultation dosage was extracted from call notes. MBC fidelity was measured using the implementation index, which combines rates of administering and viewing questionnaires, using objective data from the online MBC system. Multi-level modeling was used. Greater consultation dosage significantly predicted a higher implementation index (ß = 0.27, SE = 0.06, p < .001). For every 30 min spent discussing a case in consultation, the case's MBC fidelity increased by 8.1%. Greater consultation dosage significantly predicted higher rates of administration (ß = 0.07, SE = 0.03, p = 0.033) and feedback report viewing (ß = 0.24, SE = 0.06, p < .001). More consultation at the case level predicts greater MBC fidelity using objective measures. The greatest impact was increasing the clinician feedback report viewing rate. The results of this study can help inform future efforts to increase the fidelity with which MBC is delivered and to make consultation as efficient and effective as possible.

Cost-Effectiveness Analysis of School-Based Treatments for Anxiety Disorders.

BACKGROUND: School-based treatments for anxiety disorders are needed to address barriers to accessing community-based services. A key question for school administers are the costs related to these treatments. AIMS OF THE STUDY: This study examined the cost-effectiveness of a school-based modular cognitive behavioral therapy (M-CBT) for pediatric anxiety disorders compared to school-based treatment as usual (TAU). METHODS: Sixty-two school-based clinicians in Maryland and Connecticut were randomized (37 in CBT; 25 in TAU), trained, and enrolled at least one anxious student (148 students in CBT; 68 in TAU). Students (N = 216) were ages 6-18 (mean age 10.9); 63.9% were non-Hispanic White race-ethnicity; and 48.6% were female. Independent evaluators (IEs) assessed outcomes at post treatment and at a one-year follow up. Anxiety related costs included mental health care expenses and the opportunity costs of added caregiver time and missed school days. RESULTS: The overall M-CBT ICER value of $6917/QALY reflected both lower costs for days absent from school (mean difference: $--117 per youth; p = 0.045) but also lower QALY ratings (mean difference: -0.024; p = 0.900) compared with usual school counseling. Among youth with more severe anxiety at baseline, M-CBT had a more favorable ICER ($-22,846/QALY). Other mental health care costs were similar between groups (mean difference: $-90 per youth; p = 0.328). DISCUSSION: Although training school clinicians in M-CBT resulted in lower costs for school absences, evidence for the cost effectiveness of a modular CBT relative to existing school treatment for pediatric anxiety disorders was not robustly supported. Findings suggest school-based M-CBT is most cost effective for youth with the highest levels of anxiety severity and that M-CBT could help reduce the costs of missed school. Interpretations are limited due to use of retrospective recall, lack of data on medication use, and small sample size. IMPLICATIONS FOR HEALTH CARE PROVISION AND USE: Schools may benefit from providing specialized school-based services such as M-CBT for students with the highest levels of anxiety. IMPLICATIONS FOR HEALTH POLICIES: Investment decisions by schools should take into account lower costs (related to school absences), the costs of training clinicians, and student access to CBT in the community. IMPLICATIONS FOR FURTHER RESEARCH: Replication with a larger sample, service use diaries, and objective school and medical records over a longer period of time is warranted.

Client-rated facilitators and barriers to long-term youth anxiety disorder recovery.

OBJECTIVE: This study examined client ratings of 26 facilitators and barriers to anxiety improvement approximately 6 years after randomization to treatment for anxiety. METHOD: 319 youth (average 17.12 years old; 82.1% Caucasian; 58.6% female) participated in the longitudinal follow-up study to child and adolescent anxiety multimodal study (CAMS), a randomized controlled trial of medication, cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), combination, and placebo. RESULTS: Correcting for multiple comparisons, CBT components (i.e., problem solving, changing unhelpful thoughts, relaxation skills) were rated significantly more helpful among youth without, versus with, an anxiety disorder at follow-up. Barriers that differentiated youth with and without an anxiety disorder included being bullied and difficulty applying therapy content to new situations. Comparisons between youth with different anxiety disorder trajectories (e.g., stable remission, relapsed, or chronically ill) also revealed several differences. CONCLUSION: Findings suggest that client-rated facilitators and barriers covary with anxiety disorder recovery and may serve as useful tools when evaluating long-term treatment efficacy.

Harnessing Home-School Partnerships and School Consultation to Support Youth With Anxiety.

Youth with anxiety often experience significant impairment in the school setting. Despite the relevance and promise of addressing anxiety in schools, traditional treatment approaches to school-based anxiety often do not adequately address generalization to the school setting, or they require removing the student from the classroom to deliver time- and staff-intensive programs. Such programs often leave teachers and caregivers feeling ill-equipped to support the student with anxiety throughout the natural course of the school day. Given the heavy demands placed on teachers and documented burnout among school professionals, providing effective school supports requires collaborative partnerships among outpatient therapists/specialists, school personnel, and caregivers. Drawing from literature on collaborative models for externalizing problems, we offer recommendations for outpatient therapists and specialists working to implement evidence-based supports in school settings and promote home-school partnerships to benefit youth with anxiety in the school setting. Our recommendations touch upon several components of such school consultation, including (a) identification of key parties involved, (b) conducting a needs assessment, (c) collaborative goal setting and development of a fear hierarchy, (d) plan development and implementation (e.g., facilitating a school-based exposure mindset, promoting home-school communication, enhancing school relationships), and (e) progress monitoring and ongoing support. We conclude with a case example to bring these recommendations to life.

WHO Participates in Effectiveness Research? A Comparison of Effectiveness Trial Clinicians to National Survey Samples.

Findings from research participants in effectiveness treatment trials (i.e., randomized control trials conducted in community rather than research settings) are considered more generalizable than those from participants in efficacy trials. This is especially true for clinician participants, whose characteristics like attitudes towards evidence-based practices (EBPs) may impact treatment implementation and the generalizability of research findings from effectiveness studies. This study compared background characteristics, attitudes toward EBPs, and attitudes towards measurement-based care (MBC) among clinicians participating in a National Institute of Mental-Health (NIMH) funded effectiveness trial, the Community Study of Outcome Monitoring for Emotional Disorders in Teens (COMET), to clinician data from nationally representative U.S. survey samples. Results indicated COMET clinicians were significantly younger, less clinically experienced, and were more likely to have a training background in psychology versus other disciplines compared to national survey samples. After controlling for demographics and professional characteristics, COMET clinicians held more positive attitudes towards EBPs and MBC compared to national survey samples. Implications for implementation efforts are discussed.

Intervention Adherence and Self-Efficacy as Predictors of Child Outcomes in School Nurse-Delivered Interventions for Anxiety.

This study examined the association between two implementation factors, nurse-reported intervention adherence and self-efficacy, and children's outcomes in school nurse-delivered anxiety interventions. Data were collected in a pilot randomized controlled effectiveness trial with 54 children and 21 school nurses. Nurses implemented either a cognitive behavioral or relaxation-skills-only intervention. Nurse questionnaires assessed implementation factors. Independent evaluators assessed changes in children's anxiety symptoms at postintervention and at 3-month follow-up using clinical improvement and global functioning scales. Regression analyses indicated that greater intervention adherence was associated with greater anxiety symptom improvement at follow-up. Nurse self-efficacy interacted with intervention group, such that nurses with higher self-efficacy who implemented the cognitive behavioral intervention tended to have children show improvement and higher postintervention functioning. The impact of implementation factors on children's outcomes may differ depending on intervention type. Self-efficacy may be important for nurses using relatively complex interventions. Intervention adherence should be supported through training and consultation.

A pilot RCT of a school nurse delivered intervention to reduce student anxiety.

The goal of this study was to evaluate the feasibility and impact of brief school-nurse-administered interventions for reducing anxiety. Thirty school nurses in Connecticut and Maryland were randomly assigned to deliver the Child Anxiety Learning Modules (CALM; n = 14) or CALM-Relaxation only (CALM-R; n = 16). Students (N = 54) were ages 5-12 (M age = 8; 84.9% White; 68.5% female) with elevated anxiety symptoms and/or anxiety disorders. Feasibility was assessed based on recruitment, retention, attendance, training and intervention satisfaction, and intervention adherence. Multiple informants, including independent evaluators (IEs), completed measures of clinical improvement at postintervention and at a 3-month follow-up. Of nurses in CALM and CALM-R, 62% and 81%, respectively, enrolled a student and completed an average of 6 sessions. Youth retention was 85% and 94% in CALM and CALM-R, respectively. Training and intervention satisfaction were high. At postintervention and follow-up, youth in both groups showed significant reductions in anxiety and related symptoms and improvements in functioning. Within-group effect sizes were medium to large, and between-group effect sizes were small. Task shifting responsibility for delivering brief mental health interventions to school nurses is feasible and shows promise for reducing anxiety and related impairment. This approach may also be integrated within a response to intervention model used in schools.Public Health Significance: Brief school-nurse-administered anxiety reduction interventions were shown to be feasible and had a positive impact on student anxiety and related impairment highlighting that school nurses can be an important school resource.

Cost-benefit Analysis of the Coping and Promoting Strength Program.

This study sought to estimate the net benefits and return on investment (ROI, %) of the Coping and Promoting Strength (CAPS) program to families and insurers, respectively, using data from a multi-year follow up of 136 US families who had participated in a randomized efficacy trial of CAPS. CAPS is a brief parent-focused psychosocial intervention that was compared to information monitoring in the trial. Of the 136 original participants, 113 (83%) completed follow-up interviews 7.1 years, on average, after the CAPS study baseline (mean follow-up age: 15.8 years; range: 13.1 to 20.8 years). Parent-reported willingness-to-pay values and estimates of behavioral healthcare cost savings from delayed onset of anxiety were used to simulate the average net benefits of CAPS to families and insurance plans, respectively, assuming patients pay 20% coinsurance. Psychologists in private offices were expected to charge an average of approximately $195 per CAPS session or $1417 in total in 2020 dollars. The estimated family share of the total CAPS session cost was $283 per youth, while the insurer share was $1134 per youth. Given these costs, the CAPS intervention was estimated to result in average overall net benefits of $1033 per youth (95% CI: -$546 to $2611). Families gained $344 (95% CI: $232 to $455 per family) for an ROI of 121%. Insurance plans on average gained a net savings of $689 per youth (95% CI: -$778 to $2156 per youth) for an average ROI of 61%. In this multiyear follow-up of offspring of anxious parents, exposure to the CAPS pediatric anxiety prevention program was found to be more economically efficient than was waiting for an anxiety disorder to be diagnosed. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00847561.

Preventing the Onset of Anxiety Disorders in Offspring of Anxious Parents: A Six-Year Follow-up.

This study examined the effects of a family-based intervention Coping and Promoting Strength (CAPS) relative to a control condition, information-monitoring (IM), to prevent the onset of anxiety disorders in offspring of anxious parents six years after their initial assessment. One hundred thirty six families participated in the original randomized trial; 113 (83%) completed the one time follow-up assessment. Presence of anxiety disorders and severity of symptoms in offspring were assessed by masked evaluators using the Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule; parents and offspring also completed questionnaires assessing offspring anxiety. Using the intention to treat sample from the original trial, Cox regression models showed significant intervention main effects in the rate of onset of anxiety disorders from baseline to follow-up (anxiety disorder: hazard ratio (HR) = 2.55, 95% CI: 1.54, 4.21) but growth curves suggest effects occurred within the first year after program completion. No group differences were found in the cumulative incidence of anxiety disorders at the six-year follow-up. Additional intervention appears needed to maintain the initial positive effects long-term to reduce the risk for downstream disability.Clinical Trials Registration: NCT00847561.

Antidepressant Use in a 3- to 12-Year Follow-up of Anxious Youth: Results from the CAMELS Trial.

The current study explored whether patient characteristics predicted patterns of antidepressant use (i.e., never used, single episode of use, or two or more episodes) in a naturalistic follow-up. Participants in the child/adolescent multimodal (CAMS) extended long-term study. (n = 318) indicated medication use over the course of eight follow-up visits, 3-12 years after receiving treatment in CAMS. 40.6% of participants reported never using an antidepressant during follow-up, 41.4% reported a single episode of antidepressant use, and 18.0% reported multiple episodes of antidepressant use. Greater baseline anxiety severity marginally predicted a single episode of antidepressant use; baseline depression severity predicted multiple episodes of use. Reasons for discontinuing antidepressants included perceived ineffectiveness (31.8%), side effects (25.5%), and improvement in symptoms (18.5%). Exploratory analyses examined predictors of medication use. Findings suggest that antidepressant use is common among anxious youth, as is discontinuation of antidepressant use. Clinical implications and future directions are discussed.

Person-Centered Profiles Among Treatment-Seeking Children and Adolescents with Anxiety Disorders.

Latent profile analysis (LPA) was used to derive homogeneous subgroups within the Child/Adolescent Anxiety Multimodal Study sample (N = 488; 7-17 years, M = 10.69, SD = 2.80) and examine whether class membership predicted or moderated treatment response. Subgroups were identified on baseline multi-informant measures of variables most consistently associated with outcome (youth anxiety/diagnosis, impairment, family psychopathology/functioning). Subgroup membership was examined as a predictor/moderator of outcome across the four treatment conditions (CBT, Sertraline, CBT+Sertraline, pill placebo) at posttreatment (12 weeks) and open-extension follow-up (24 weeks). Four subgroups emerged: mild symptoms/impairment, moderate symptoms/impairment, moderate symptoms/impairment with family dysfunction/parental psychopathology, and severe symptoms/impairment. There were significant between-class differences on socioeconomic status (SES; lower reported SES in the moderate with family dysfunction/parental psychopathology class compared to the mild and moderate class) and age (older age in the severe symptoms class compared to the other three classes). Youth in the mild symptoms/impairment class showed lower posttreatment anxiety across conditions but reported significantly lower symptom severity at baseline. Controlling for demographic differences, response to treatment type did not differ across classes. Analyses indicate that elevated family dysfunction/parental psychopathology clusters primarily within one subgroup of anxious youth rather than mapping onto symptom severity, highlighting the utility of LPA for clarifying within-person combinations of predictor/moderator variables. Implications for development of interventions targeting class-relevant variables are discussed.

Concordance between clinician, supervisor and observer ratings of therapeutic competence in CBT and treatment as usual: does clinician competence or supervisor session observation improve agreement?

BACKGROUND: Lowering the cost of assessing clinicians' competence could promote the scalability of evidence-based treatments such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). AIMS: This study examined the concordance between clinicians', supervisors' and independent observers' session-specific ratings of clinician competence in school-based CBT and treatment as usual (TAU). It also investigated the association between clinician competence and supervisory session observation and rater agreement. METHOD: Fifty-nine school-based clinicians (90% female, 73% Caucasian) were randomly assigned to implement TAU or modular CBT for youth anxiety. Clinicians rated their confidence after each therapy session (n = 1898), and supervisors rated clinicians' competence after each supervision session (n = 613). Independent observers rated clinicians' competence from audio recordings (n = 395). RESULTS: Patterns of rater discrepancies differed between the TAU and CBT groups. Correlations with independent raters were low across groups. Clinician competence and session observation were associated with higher agreement among TAU, but not CBT, supervisors and clinicians. CONCLUSIONS: These results support the gold standard practice of obtaining independent ratings of adherence and competence in implementation contexts. Further development of measures and/or rater training methods for clinicians and supervisors is needed.

Integrating evidence-based assessment into clinical practice for pediatric anxiety disorders.

BACKGROUND: Although evidence-based assessments are the cornerstone of evidence-based treatments, it remains unknown whether incorporating evidence-based assessments into clinical practice enhances therapists' judgment of therapeutic improvement. This study examined whether the inclusion of youth- and parent-reported anxiety rating scales improved therapists' judgment of treatment response and remission compared to the judgment of treatment-masked independent evaluators (IEs) after (a) weekly/biweekly acute treatment and (b) monthly follow-up care. METHODS: Four hundred thirty six youth received cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT), medication, CBT with medication, or pill placebo through the Child/Adolescent Anxiety Multimodal Study. Participants and parents completed the following anxiety scales at pretreatment, posttreatment, and follow-up: Screen for Childhood Anxiety and Related Disorders (SCARED) and Multidimensional Anxiety Scale for Children (MASC). IEs rated anxiety on the Clinical Global Impression of Severity (CGI-S) and Improvement (CGI-I) at posttreatment and follow-up. Therapists rated anxiety severity and improvement using scales that paralleled IE measures. RESULTS: Fair-to-moderate agreement was found between therapists and IEs after acute treatment (κ = 0.38-0.48), with only slight-to-fair agreement found after follow-up care (κ = 0.07-0.33). Optimal algorithms for determining treatment response and remission included the combination of therapists' ratings and the parent-reported SCARED after acute (κ = 0.52-0.54) and follow-up care (κ = 0.43-0.48), with significant improvement in the precision of judgments after follow-up care (p < .02-.001). CONCLUSION: Therapists are good at detecting treatment response and remission, but the inclusion of the parent-report SCARED optimized agreement with IE rating-especially when contact was less frequent. Findings suggest that utilizing parent-report measures of anxiety in clinical practice improves the precision of therapists' judgment.

Mood and suicidality outcomes 3-11 years following pediatric anxiety disorder treatment.

BACKGROUND: Youth anxiety interventions have potential to reduce risk for depression and suicidality. METHODS: This naturalistic follow-up of the multi-site, comparative treatment trial, inking and behavior, and depressive symptoms 3-11 years (mean 6.25 years) following 12-week evidence-based youth anxiety treatment. Participants (N = 319; 10-26 years, mean 17 years) completed semiannual questionnaires and annual diagnostic interviews for 4 years. RESULTS: One-fifth (20.4%) of the sample met DSM-IV criteria for a mood disorder, 32.1% endorsed suicidal ideation, and 8.2% reported suicidal behavior. Latent class growth analysis yielded two linear trajectories of depressive symptoms, and 85% of the sample demonstrated a persistent low-symptom course over seven assessments. Child/Adolescent Anxiety Multimodal Study (CAMS) 12-week treatment outcome (positive response, remission) and treatment condition (cognitive behavior therapy [CBT], medication, CBT + medication, pill placebo) were not associated with subsequent mood disorder or suicidal thinking. CAMS remission predicted absence of suicidal behavior, and treatment response and remission predicted low depressive symptom trajectory. Greater baseline self-reported depressive symptoms predicted all long-term mood outcomes, and more negative life events predicted subsequent mood disorder, depressive symptom trajectory, and suicidal ideation. CONCLUSIONS: Effective early treatment of youth anxiety, including CBT, medication, or CBT + medication, reduces risk for subsequent chronic depressive symptoms and suicidal behavior. Attention to (sub)clinical depressive symptoms and management of negative life events may reduce odds of developing a mood disorder, chronic depressive symptoms, and suicidality. Findings contribute to evidence that early intervention for a primary disorder can serve as secondary prevention.