Pre-treatment child and family characteristics as predictors of outcome in cognitive behavioural therapy for youth anxiety disorders

Abstract

Background: Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) has been found to be effective for children and adolescents (6–18 years) with anxiety disorders, but the non-response rate is high—a fact that may argue for the importance of studies on pre-treatment characteristics of children and their families that predict treatment outcome. Aims: To provide a systematic review of clinical and demographic pre-treatment child and family predictors of treatment outcome in CBT for anxiety disorders in youth. Method: A systematic literature search was conducted based on electronic databases (PsycINFO, Embase and PubMed), and retrieved studies were analysed according to the box-score method of counting significant findings. Results: 24 studies with a sample size ≥ 60 were located. Most studies dealt with the following predictors: child age, gender, comorbidity, symptom severity and parental psychopathology. There was some evidence that a higher degree of pre-treatment symptomatic severity and non-anxiety comorbidity predicted higher end-state severity, but not a lesser degree of improvement. There was some but inconsistent support for a negative influence of parental psychopathology. Conclusion: Studies on pre-treatment child and family predictors of outcome in CBT for youth anxiety disorders have until now resulted in few findings of clinical or theoretical significance.

• Anxiety disorders
• Cognitive behaviour therapy
• Predictors
• Treatment response
• Youth

Declaration of interest: The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.