Inpatient Psychiatric Treatment of Children and Adolescents: A Review of Outcome Studies

So You Want To Run An Outcome Study? The Challenges To Measuring Adolescent Residential Treatment Outcomes

“…Yet the literature on the assessment of outcomes in adolescent residential treatment widely acknowledges the significant study design problems inherent in residential treatment outcome studies and the paucity of adequately designed studies (Chang et al, 996;Curry, 99;Curtis et al, 200;Gilliland-Mallo & Judd, 986;Goocher, 997;Gorske et al, 200;Hooper et al, 2000;Larzelere et al, 200;Mann-Feder, 996;Pfeiffer, 989;Pfeiffer & Strzelecki, 990;Swales & Kiehn, 995;Wilson et al, 98). These problems begin with a lack of consensus on what constitutes residential treatment (Bates et al,997;Curtis et al,200) and acknowledge that residential treatment outcome studies are inherently limited by the lack of appropriate comparison groups in the use of quasi-experimental designs (Curry,99).…”

“…In a separate study, Grietens & Hellinckx (200) narrowed the parameter of their study to the efficacy of residential treatment for juvenile offenders and defined their population according to criminal behavior and recidivism. Many other studies (e.g., Connor et al, 2002;Lyons et al, 200;Pfeiffer, 989;Pfeiffer & Strzelecki, 990) defined the population primarily in terms of emotionally/behaviorally disturbed (EBD) or seriously emotionally disturbed (SED).…”

“…With respect to defining and measuring outcomes, reviews of published studies have acknowledged a lack of definition, inconsistency between studies, and the failure to use valid and reliable instruments (Jainchill et al, 2000;Pfeiffer, 989;Pfeiffer & Strzelecki, 990;Swales & Kiehn, 995). For example, many studies have measured outcomes in terms of a reduction or absence of a negative indicator, rather than an increase in a positive indicator (Jainchill et al, 2000).…”

“…Many authors acknowledge that this consideration provides an additional rationale for implementing outcome studies that also look at benefit-cost analyses (Goocher, 1997;Lyons et al, 200;Pfeiffer, 996;Pfeiffer & Strzelecki, 990;Swales & Kiehn, 995;Wilson et al, 98). Competition for behavioral health service funding is also increasing and some residential treatment facilities are under increasing pressure to justify the high cost of their interventions if funded by these sources.…”

Hospitalisation psychiatrique des adolescents dans le canton de Vaud: une étude sur les modalités d'admission, les filières de soins, le rôle et le vécu de l'hospitalisation

“…Le devenir des adolescents hospitalisés pour des raisons psychiatriques demeure particuliè-rement préoccupant comme en témoignent les études rétrospectives ou longitudinales [24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33]. Elles relèvent toutes un risque plus élevé de décès prématurés (suicide, accident, toxicomanie), de conduites suicidaires, de conduites de dépendance aux substances psychoactives, de délinquance et d'évolution vers les maladies mentales chroniques et le handicap social.…”