Obstacles to the Economic Evaluation of Specialist Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services

Abstract

Few economic evaluations of child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) have been carried out and those that exist suffer from design weaknesses. This chapter presents a comprehensive systematic review and quality appraisal of clinical and economic evaluations of nonpharmacological specialist CAMHS in the UK. The chapter also describes the results of a survey of key UK investigators involved in the evaluation of specialist CAMHS to identify the obstacles to high quality clinical evaluations and to determine the impact these obstacles might have on the ability to undertake high quality economic evaluations. It points the way for future improvements in the conduct of health economic research in this field.