Detecting risk for treatment nonresponse among families of young children with behavior problems: Candidate tailoring variables and early decision points for adaptive interventions
Heterogeneity in mental health treatment outcomes and high rates of treatment nonresponse highlight the need for adaptive interventions that align with precision mental health care approaches to tailor treatments according to individual differences in progress over time. Modern clinical trial methodologies and analytic strategies can inform dynamic mental health treatment decisions, but the potential to improve patient outcomes is only as strong as the extent to which selected tailoring variables (i.e., interim response factors that dictate whether treatment should shift course) accurately detect risk for treatment nonresponse. Identifying empirically informed tailoring variables and the most appropriate timepoint(s) to assess them (i.e., critical decision points) is essential in order to design adaptive interventions.
This dissertation is comprised of three manuscripts focused on the use of early interim progress data to detect risk for mental health treatment nonresponse. First, I detail a strategy that leverages secondary data analysis to examine candidate tailoring variables at candidate critical decision points, and their relationships with treatment nonresponse. Then, I directly apply this strategy to a pooled sample of families who presented for treatment of early childhood behavior problems (N=153). This study showed that using dichotomous classifications of early interim treatment progress yielded limited utility in differentially predicting post-treatment response when examined in isolation from one another. Thus, I subsequently adopt a continuous approach to measuring early interim treatment progress and examine whether interactions between early indicators of treatment response predict symptom trajectories in a sample of families who participated in a behavioral parenting intervention (BPI) for early childhood developmental delay and behavior problems (N=70).
Findings from the third paper suggest symptom response trajectories can be predicted by examining the interaction between caregiver skills and child behavior problems displayed within the first six sessions of a BPI. Collectively, this collection of work encourages the use of routine outcome monitoring to assess multiple domains of early interim treatment progress. To improve the efficiency and effectiveness of mental health care, future work should continue to use analytic approaches that capture the dynamic interplay among multiple early interim response factors that can optimally inform clinical decision-making practices throughout treatment
