The utility of pre-assessment standardised diagnosis in child and adolescent mental health services

ISRCTN	ISRCTN31394658
DOI	https://doi.org/10.1186/ISRCTN31394658
Secondary identifying numbers	N/A

Submission date: 30/09/2005
Registration date: 23/11/2005
Last edited: 27/06/2017

Recruitment status: No longer recruiting
Overall study status: Completed
Condition category: Mental and Behavioural Disorders

Prospectively registered

Protocol

Statistical analysis plan

Results

Individual participant data

Plain English summary of protocol

Not provided at time of registration

Contact information

Prof Tamsin Ford
Scientific

Room 2.05c
University of Exeter Medical School
South Cloisters
St Luke's Campus
Exeter
EX1 2LU
United Kingdom

ORCID ID	0000-0001-5295-4904
Phone	+44 1392 722 973
Email	T.J.Ford@exeter.ac.uk

Study information

Study design	Randomised controlled trial
Primary study design	Interventional
Secondary study design	Randomised controlled trial
Study setting(s)	Not specified
Study type	Not Specified
Participant information sheet	ISRCTN31394658_PIS_27Jun17.pdf
Scientific title	The utility of pre-assessment standardised diagnosis in child and adolescent mental health services
Study objectives	1. Are the clinical assessments more likely to agree with the standardized diagnosis if the clinician has had access to the standardized diagnosis prior to the first appointment with the family? 2. Are the children more likely to receive an evidence-based treatment if the clinician has access to the standardized diagnosis prior to the first appointment with the family? 3. Are children able to access specialist clinics if clinicians/managers are aware of the diagnostic assessment? 4. Is the level of agreement between the clinical and standardized diagnoses higher in the last six months of the study compared to the first, suggesting that the clinical team is learning from their exposure to the standardized assessments? 5. Do clinicians find the information provided by the standardized diagnosis useful in making their own assessment? 6. Is the rate of attendance at first appointments higher among children whose parents have completed a standardized diagnostic assessment while on the waiting list as compared to control children? 7. Do parents find the completion of a standardized assessment prior to meeting the clinician useful and/or acceptable?
Ethics approval(s)	Joint South London and Maudsley and Institute of Psychiatry Research Ethics Committee, 14/09/2005, ref: 05/Q0706/185
Health condition(s) or problem(s) studied	Childhood psychiatric disorders
Intervention	Current interventions as of 27/06/2017: Practitioners assessing and treating children in the intervention were provided with a copy of the standardised diagnostic assessment (the DAWBA www.dawba.info) in the clinic notes – children in the control arm had assessment and treatment as normal – follow up was by questionnaire to the treating CAMHS practitioner and parents at six, 12, 18 and 24 months after baseline – obviously practitioners could only report while the child was still attending the clinic. Previous interventions: The intervention would be the provision of diagnostic information to the intervention group, while the control group would undergo the ordinary clinic assessment. The diagnostic information will be gathered from parents and teachers using the Development And Well-Being Assessment (DAWBA).
Intervention type	Other
Primary outcome measure	The primary outcome measures will be the level of agreement between the DAWBA diagnoses and the clinical assessment, and the type of intervention. After the assessment, clinicians will be asked to report which diagnoses they endorse, including no disorder or none of the above, using a pro forma listing the disorders described by the DAWBA. At six months or case closure, the clinicians will describe the type of intervention using a second structured pro forma, which will be based on the categories available on those used in the proposed national minimum data set for child and adolescent mental health services.
Secondary outcome measures	Secondary outcome measures will be parental and clinician measures of outcome, parents and clinicians opinion of the utility of the standardized assessment, the number of appointments attended and the non-attendance rates of the two groups. The latter is collected routinely by the clinic. Questionnaires using a combination of structured and unstructured questionnaires will address the utility of the standardized assessment from the perspective of parents and clinicians. The outcome measures are the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), which will be completed by parents, and the Child Global Assessment Scale (CGAS), which will be completed by parents.
Overall study start date	01/10/2004
Completion date	30/09/2011

Eligibility

Participant type(s)	Patient
Age group	Child
Lower age limit	5 Years
Upper age limit	11 Years
Sex	Both
Target number of participants	Target number of participants provided at time of registration: 520; Amended as of 14/02/2007: 500 children, 250 in each arm
Key inclusion criteria	The trial will include all referrals to Croydon child and adolescent mental health service of children aged between 5-11 years of age who are accepted onto the waiting list.
Key exclusion criteria	Children of parents with insufficient English to complete the assessment interview and emergency referrals will be excluded due to the difficulty in completing the standardized assessment. Due to the complexity of parental responsibility and therefore gaining consent, children looked after by the local authority will be excluded.
Date of first enrolment	01/03/2006
Date of final enrolment	31/05/2008

Locations

Countries of recruitment

England
United Kingdom

Study participating centre

Croydon CAMHS (Lead site)

Lennard Lodge
Lennard Road
Croydon
CR0 2UL
United Kingdom

Sponsor information

King's College London (UK)
University/education

Institute of Psychiatry
De Crespigny Park
London
SE5 8AF
England
United Kingdom

Phone	+44 20 7848 0675
Email	G.Dale@iop.kcl.ac.uk
"ROR"	https://ror.org/0220mzb33

Funders

Funder type

Research council

Medical Research Council (MRC) (UK)
Government organisation / National government

Alternative name(s): Medical Research Council (United Kingdom), UK Medical Research Council, MRC
Location: United Kingdom

Results and Publications

Intention to publish date
Individual participant data (IPD) Intention to share	No
IPD sharing plan summary	Not expected to be made available
Publication and dissemination plan	Planned publication in high-impact peer reviewed journals.
IPD sharing plan	The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study is not expected to be made available due to they do not have appropraite consent for this.

Study outputs

Output type	Details	Date created	Date added	Peer reviewed?	Patient-facing?
Results article	results	01/04/2013		Yes	No
Results article	results	01/05/2014		Yes	No
Participant information sheet		27/06/2017	27/06/2017	No	Yes

Additional files

ISRCTN31394658_PIS_27Jun17.pdf: Uploaded 27/06/2017

Editorial Notes

27/06/2017: Study contact title changed from Dr to Professor and institution changed from Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Institute of Psychiatry KCL to University of Exeter Medical School. Publication references added. Trial dates have been updated from 20/01/2006 - 11/09/2010 to 01/10/2004 - 30/09/2011. Recruitment dates have been updated from 20/01/2006- 11/09/2010 to 01/03/2006 - 31/05/2008. Added Croydon CAMHS and Bromley CAMHS as trial participating sites. Added participant level data sharing statement. ORCID was added.
12/07/2016: No publications found, verifying study status with principal investigator.