Annotation: Economic evaluations of child and adolescent mental health interventions: a systematic review

Abstract

Economic evaluations in the field of child and adolescent mental health interventions are few in number and generally poor in quality, although the number of studies being undertaken now appears to be rising.

Barriers in the mind: promoting an economic case for mental health in low‐ and middle‐income countries

“…There has been significant growth in the evidence base on the effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of interventions aimed at treating the consequences of poor mental health (particularly drug therapies) (23)(24)(25)(26). Increasingly, economic analyses are being undertaken in low-and middle-income countries (27)(28)(29)(30)(31), but the overwhelming majority of studies are from high-income countries.…”

The Role of Economic Evidence in Formulation of Public Policy and Practice

“…31,51 In contrast, the relative abundance of health economic studies is clear from international databases of abstracts such as the NHS EED, albeit with some concerns that such studies are less prominent within particular disease classifications, such as mental health and paediatrics. 6,82,83 The evidence presented here suggests considerable variation in the development of infrastructure to support and promote the use of economic evidence in policy making between sectors, between countries and between high-and low-and middle-income countries. However, there is a clear and growing appreciation of the need for such evidence, with investment from many parts of the public policy arena in the advancement of methods for the economic evaluation of public sector services and technologies and the commissioning of economic analyses.…”

The clinical effectiveness, cost-effectiveness and acceptability of community-based interventions aimed at improving or maintaining quality of life in children of parents with serious mental illness: a systematic review

“…This finding is in line with a previous review of economic evaluations in the field of child and adolescent mental health, which has suggested that economic evidence remains scarce and of poor quality. 184 The majority of trials included in our synthesis recruited and intervened directly with the mothers of infants in the first 2.5 years of life (69%). While the specific content of these interventions varied, the most common approaches comprised the higher intensity cognitive-behavioural and interpersonal therapies recommended by UK NICE guidelines for severe depression.…”