STAndardised DIagnostic Assessment for Children and Young People with Emotional Difficulties (STADIA): Protocol for a Multicentre Randomised Controlled Trial

Overview

Journal BMJ Open

Specialty General Medicine

Date 2022 May 11

PMID 35545388

Authors

Florence Day

Laura Wyatt

Anupam Bhardwaj

Bernadka Dubicka

Colleen Ewart

Julia Gledhill

Marilyn James

Alexandra Lang

Tamsin Marshall

Alan Montgomery

Shirley Reynolds

Kirsty Sprange

Louise Thomson

Ellen Bradley

James Lathe

Kristina Newman

Chris Partlett

Kath Starr

Kapil Sayal

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Introduction: Emotional disorders (such as anxiety and depression) are associated with considerable distress and impairment in day-to-day function for affected children and young people and for their families. Effective evidence-based interventions are available but require appropriate identification of difficulties to enable timely access to services. Standardised diagnostic assessment (SDA) tools may aid in the detection of emotional disorders, but there is limited evidence on the utility of SDA tools in routine care and equipoise among professionals about their clinical value.

Methods And Analysis: A multicentre, two-arm, parallel group randomised controlled trial, with embedded qualitative and health economic components. Participants will be randomised in a 1:1 ratio to either the Development and Well-Being Assessment SDA tool as an adjunct to usual clinical care, or usual care only. A total of 1210 participants (children and young people referred to outpatient, specialist Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services with emotional difficulties and their parent/carers) will be recruited from at least 6 sites in England. The primary outcome is a clinician-made diagnosis about the presence of an emotional disorder within 12 months of randomisation. Secondary outcomes include referral acceptance, diagnosis and treatment of emotional disorders, symptoms of emotional difficulties and comorbid disorders and associated functional impairment.

Ethics And Dissemination: The study received favourable opinion from the South Birmingham Research Ethics Committee (Ref. 19/WM/0133). Results of this trial will be reported to the funder and published in full in the Health Technology Assessment (HTA) Journal series and also submitted for publication in a peer reviewed journal.

Trial Registration Number: ISRCTN15748675; Pre-results.

Citing Articles

Snakes and Ladders: The experience of being referred to and seen by Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services.

Newman K, Sayal K, Ewart C, Lang A, Bhardwaj A, Dubicka B SSM Ment Health. 2024; 6:100343.

PMID: 39678451 PMC: 11635093. DOI: 10.1016/j.ssmmh.2024.100343.

Mental health in clinically referred children and young people before and during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Sayal K, Partlett C, Bhardwaj A, Dubicka B, Marshall T, Gledhill J Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry. 2022; 32(12):2657-2666.

PMID: 36526804 PMC: 9758019. DOI: 10.1007/s00787-022-02115-2.

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