Costs and cost-effectiveness of family CBT versus individual CBT in clinically anxious children

Abstract

The objective of this study was to investigate the cost-effectiveness of family cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) compared with individual CBT in children with anxiety disorders. Clinically anxious children (aged 8-18 years) referred for treatment were randomly assigned to family or individual CBT and were assessed pre-treatment, post treatment, and at 3 months and 1 year after treatment. Cost-effectiveness ratios were calculated expressing the incremental costs per anxiety-free child and the incremental costs per Quality Adjusted Life Year (QALY) for the referred child. Neither societal costs nor effectiveness were significantly different between individual and family CBT. However, the point estimates of the cost-effectiveness ratios resulted in dominance for individual CBT, indicating that individual CBT is more effective and less costly than family CBT. These results were confirmed by bootstrap analyses and cost-effectiveness acceptability curves. Several secondary and sensitivity analyses showed that the results were robust. It can be concluded that family CBT is not a cost-effective treatment for clinically anxious children, compared with individual CBT.