No abstract

No abstract

IntroductionAnxiety and mood disorders are common in adolescence and predict poor mental health outcomes and low quality of life in adulthood. Although early intervention seems to be critical, dropouts in the early stages of treatment are frequent and associated with low insight and severe symptoms. Therefore, a diagnostic assessment phase aimed to increase insight and early reduce symptoms appears to be essential in adolescents.ObjectivesThe objective of this study is to demonstrate that the diagnostic method Cooperative Assessment is able to early reduce symptoms in adolescents with anxiety and mood disorders.MethodsA sample of 88 patients, aged 14–19 years were included. All were recruited at the first visit and evaluated with the Cooperative Assessment. This manualized procedure was created from principles of collaborative and therapeutic assessment and aim to involve the patient in a co-developed diagnosis thorough the collaborative use of test results. Patients were evaluated before (T0), in the middle (T1) and after (T2) the assessment using CGI, GAF, HAM-A, HAM-D and MRS scales.ResultsEighty-eight adolescents, 56.8% females, diagnosed with anxiety (47.7%) and mood disorders (52.3%) completed the protocol. HAM-A, HAM-D, MRS, CGI and GAF significantly improved at T1 and T2 with respect to T0 (T0: HAM-A 17.31 ± 8.22; HAM-D 16.97 ± 8.37; MRS5.78 ± 6.17; GAF 59.3 ± 11.06; CGI 3.63 ± 1.35; T2: HAM-A 11.41 ± 6.82; HAM-D 11.1 ± 6.91; MRS3.82 ± 3.87; GAF 67.5 ± 10.76; CGI 3.03 ± 1.26; P < 0.001; Wilcoxon signed-rank test for repeated measures).ConclusionsCooperative assessment is able to early improve symptoms in adolescents with mood and anxiety disorders.Disclosure of interestThe authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.