Evaluating the effectiveness of interventions in child psychiatry.

OBJECTIVE To review the nature of outcome measures used to evaluate psychosocial treatment in children. METHOD Recent research findings that highlight the importance of outcome data and justify randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are reviewed. RESULTS Outcome measures of child therapy can focus on changes in the child's symptoms, adaptation to the psychosocial environment, cognitive or emotional capacities, and changes in interaction with others. They can also assess service utilization, related costs, and the suffering of those associated with the child before and after treatment. RCTs remain the optimal methodology, notwithstanding current critiques. CONCLUSION Studies assessing the effectiveness of psychosocial treatment must include a definition of various outcomes and use appropriate methodologies to measure them.