International consensus on a standard set of outcome measures for child and youth anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, and post-traumatic stress disorder

Abstract

KK, MW, and SC oversaw the study design. KK and SC led data acquisition through the literature reviews, Delphi surveys, and Open Review surveys, as well as data analysis and interpretation. KK takes responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of data analysis. All authors attended teleconferences, and all but the core project team (KK, MW, SC) completed anonymous votes and feedback surveys as part of the Delphi process and formed consensus on the final recommendation. KK drafted the manuscript with support from SC, and all co-authors critically reviewed the working draft and agreed to the revisions and final submission. Administrative, technical, and organisational support was provided by SC. Declaration of interests AMA receives royalties fromOxford University Press for the Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule (ADIS), Child and Parent Versions. PB is involved with the development across Australia of routine outcome measurement in public mental health. He chairs the National Mental Health Child and Adolescent Information Development Expert AdvisoryGroup. There is an interest in supporting routine outcome measurement and benchmarking between organisations.

Are We Comparing Apples with Oranges? Assessing Improvement Across Symptoms, Functioning, and Goal Progress for Adolescent Anxiety and Depression

“…Services wishing to embed routine outcome monitoring face the challenge of having to identify the most important outcomes to measure, as well as the most suitable measurement instruments to track these outcomes. Notably, such instruments should be feasible, acceptable, valid, and reliable [21]. In addition, consultations with youth, families, and clinicians indicate that outcome measurement should be tailored to individual cases, and assess change holistically [22][23][24].…”

Assessing the Impact of Mental Health Difficulties on Young People’s Daily Lives: Protocol for a Scoping Umbrella Review of Measurement Instruments

“…The assessment of life impact can provide important complementary information [5][6][7]63,64]. Two recent initiatives have highlighted functioning as a core outcome to track when evaluating clinical care for paediatric anxiety and depression [9], and when measuring youth mental health outcomes in population surveys [65]. Yet, difficulties have been reported with identifying a gold standard measure [9].…”

“…Two recent initiatives have highlighted functioning as a core outcome to track when evaluating clinical care for paediatric anxiety and depression [9], and when measuring youth mental health outcomes in population surveys [65]. Yet, difficulties have been reported with identifying a gold standard measure [9]. This scoping umbrella review does not aim to yield an authoritative summary of which instrument provides the best measurement properties.…”

“…Impaired daily functioning has been shown to influence help-seeking and health providers' decisions about the type of care an individual should receive [3,4]. Assessing life impact can also help contextualize changes in symptom severity scores when assessing treatment efficacy and effectiveness [5][6][7][8][9][10]. From a public health perspective, consideration of life impact has moved common mental health conditions like depression to the fore of public health agendas, by showcasing that the associated burden of disease is comparable to that of cardiovascular or respiratory diseases [2].…”

“…Researchers wishing to assess the life impact of mental health difficulties in young people further face the challenge of selecting the most appropriate instrument. A recent scoping review identified 14 different measures of global functioning, three measures of condition-specific impairment, and 14 measures of health-related quality of life (HRQoL), across 257 treatment studies for child and youth anxiety, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) [9]. Several reviews provide overviews of available instruments [28][29][30][31][32][33][34], their measurement properties and feasibility characteristics, but these have tended to be domain-specific (e.g., focusing only on HRQoL); consequently, a comprehensive overview of life impact measures is lacking.…”