The development of a mentalization-based outcomes and research protocol for an adolescent inpatient unit

Abstract

The authors describe the development of a theory-driven assessment and research protocol at the Adolescent Treatment Program of The Menninger Clinic. First, the theoretical framework behind a mentalization-based model for assessment and treatment is described. Next, the process whereby measures were selected to operationalize key components of the mentalization-based model is discussed, including a brief discussion of each measure and assessment procedure. The next section describes the clinical and research use of the data collected. Here, the authors describe how outcomes assessment information is integrated into the clinical decision-making process, and they outline the research questions they aim to answer through the assessment protocol. The authors conclude with a section on the challenges, pitfalls, and future directions of the project.

Mental State Decoding in Adolescent Boys with Major Depressive Disorder versus Sex-Matched Healthy Controls

“…The MDD group was recruited from the adolescent treatment unit of a private inpatient clinic where average length of stay is 3-6 weeks [34]. On the day of admission, parents were approached for consent, and, if given, adolescents provided assent.…”

Adolescents Are Less Satisfied with Inpatient Psychiatric Care than Their Parents

“…As part of standard of care, patients participate in a hospital-wide quality and outcomes project (Sharp et al, 2009), completing myriad assessments during their hospitalization. At discharge, adolescents are asked to complete the POC (Eisen et al, 2002) and Youth Self-Report (YSR; Achenbach, 1991) measure; at the same time, parents are asked to complete the POC and the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL; Achenbach, 1991).…”

“Learning how to deal with feelings differently”: Psychotropic medications as vehicles of socialization in adolescence

“…According to developmental psychology, adolescents have less developed metacognitive abilities, including mentalization, than adults (Sharp et al, 2009;Weil et al, 2013). A developmental task of adolescence, therefore is to increase analytic and imaginative capacities for introspection, self-reflection, empathy and so forth.…”