Cited by 291Psychotherapy Techniques and ApplicationsPersonality Disorders and PsychopathologyDigital Mental Health Interventions

Annual Research Review: Building a science of personalized intervention for youth mental health

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Ng, Mei Yi, Weisz, John R.·2016·Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry

Abstract

Background: Within the past decade, health care service and research priorities have shifted from evidence‐based medicine to personalized medicine. In mental health care, a similar shift to personalized intervention may boost the effectiveness and clinical utility of empirically supported therapies ( EST s). The emerging science of personalized intervention will need to encompass evidence‐based methods for determining which problems to target and in which order, selecting treatments and deciding whether and how to combine them, and informing ongoing clinical decision‐making through monitoring of treatment response throughout episodes of care. We review efforts to develop these methods, drawing primarily from psychotherapy research with youths. Then we propose strategies for building a science of personalized intervention in youth mental health. Findings: The growing evidence base for personalizing interventions includes research on therapies adapted for specific subgroups; treatments targeting youths’ environments; modular therapies; sequential, multiple assignment, randomized trials; measurement feedback systems; meta‐analyses comparing treatments for specific patient characteristics; data‐mining decision trees; and individualized metrics. Conclusion: The science of personalized intervention presents questions that can be addressed in several ways. First, to evaluate and organize personalized interventions, we propose modifying the system used to evaluate and organize EST s. Second, to help personalizing research keep pace with practice needs, we propose exploiting existing randomized trial data to inform personalizing approaches, prioritizing the personalizing approaches likely to have the greatest impact, conducting more idiographic research, and studying tailoring strategies in usual care. Third, to encourage clinicians’ use of personalized intervention research to inform their practice, we propose expanding outlets for research summaries and case studies, developing heuristic frameworks that incorporate personalizing approaches into practice, and integrating personalizing approaches into service delivery systems. Finally, to build a richer understanding of how and why treatments work for particular individuals, we propose accelerating research to identify mediators within and across RCT s, to isolate mechanisms of change, and to inform the shift from diagnoses to psychopathological processes. This ambitious agenda for personalized intervention science, although challenging, could markedly alter the nature of mental health care and the benefit provided to youths and families.

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  • Substantial ground has been covered in the adult literature on treatment predictors and moderators, but this is not the case for treatment of mental disorders in adolescents and young adults.

    “And whilst substantial ground has been covered in the adult literature [38–40], this is not the case in treatment for mental disorders in adolescents and young adults [30].”

    From Predictors and moderators of outcome of psychotherapeutic interventions for mental disorders in adolescents and young adults: protocol for systematic reviews (2021) · cites this paper as [30]

    In “Meta-Analyses Comparing Treatments for Specific Patient Characteristics” (page unavailable), the review says that reported moderators in youth treatment studies do not show which treatments work better for patients with specific characteristics. It also notes that most meta-analyses of tailoring therapy in the example it discusses included only adults. This supports the contrast for adolescents, but the cited discussion does not establish the same gap for young adults; the sentence’s adult-literature claim is cited to other sources. (LLM, conf=0.83)

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  • There is an empirical knowledge gap on personalized mental health treatment for young people.

    “Thus, there is an empirical knowledge gap on personalized mental health treatment for YP, which makes the goals for individualized treatment hard to reach [30, 48].”
  • A field-wide consensus began to build for more clarity about philosophical assumptions, greater understanding of processes of change, increased focus on fitting interventions to individuals, and greater emphasis on competency in delivering helpful intervention kernels rather than trademark protocols.

    “A field-wide consensus began to build (Klepac et al., 2012) for more clarity about philosophical assumptions; greater understanding of processes of change (Kazdin, 2007); an increased focus on fitting intervention methods to the needs of individuals (Ng & Weisz, 2016); and a greater emphasis on competency in delivering a wide variety of helpful inventions kernels (Weisz, Ugueto, Herren, Afienko, &”

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Research works printed but not linked: 6

  1. Liddle HA Weisz JR Kazdin AE Treating adolescent substance abuse using Multidimensional Family Therapy. Evidence-based psychotherapies for children and adolescents 2010 416 432 Guilford Press New York 2nd edn.
  2. National Academy of Sciences Toward precision medicine: Building a knowledge network for biomedical research and a new taxonomy of disease 2011 National Academies Press Washington, DC 22536618
  3. Norcross JC Wampold BE What works for whom: Tailoring psychotherapy to the person. Journal of Clinical Psychology 2011 67 127 132 doi: 10.1002/jclp.20764 21108312 · DOI · Paper page
  4. Schoenwald SK Weisz JR Kazdin AE From policy pinball to purposeful partnership: The policy contexts of Multisystemic Therapy transport and dissemination. Evidence-based psychotherapies for children and adolescents 2010 538 553 Guilford Press New York 2nd edn.
  5. Smith DK Chamberlain P Weisz JR Kazdin AE Multidimensional treatment foster care for adolescents: Processes and outcomes. Evidence-based psychotherapies for children and adolescents 2010 243 258 Guilford Press New York 2nd edn.
  6. Weisz JR Chorpita BF Kendall PC Mod squad for youth psychotherapy: Restructuring evidence-based treatment for clinical practice. Child and adolescent therapy: Cognitive-behavioral procedures 2011 379 397 Guilford Press New York 4th edn.

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Authors
Ng, M. Y., & Weisz, J. R.
Affiliations
Harvard University (US)
Corresponding author
Ng, Mei Yi
Venue
Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry
Publisher
Wiley
Published
2015-10-15
Volume
57
Issue
3
Pages
216-236
ISSN
  • 0021-9630 (ISSN-L)
  • 1469-7610
OpenAlex
W2163075384
Cited by
291
References
153
Citations by year
2026: 23 · 2025: 38 · 2024: 28 · 2023: 30 · 2022: 34 · 2021: 33 · 2020: 25 · 2019: 32 · 2018: 21 · 2017: 19 · 2016: 8
FWCI
2.30
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
  • Europe PMC (PubMed Central) (acceptedVersion)
  • PubMed Central (acceptedVersion)
  • Digital Access to Scholarship at Harvard (DASH) (Harvard University) (submittedVersion, cc-by)
Funders
  • National Institute of Mental Health (MH57347, MH068806, MH085963)
  • John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation
  • Annie E. Casey Foundation
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Personality Disorders and Psychopathology
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Applied Psychology › Digital Mental Health Interventions
Keywords
personalized interventions, youth mental health, personalized medicine, empirically supported treatments, sequential multiple assignment randomized trial, treatment response monitoring, treatment tailoring, idiographic research, mechanisms of change, mediators, treatment selection, clinical decision-making
MeSH terms
Mental Disorders, Child, Child Psychiatry, Humans, Biomedical Research, Precision Medicine

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