Clinician Knowledge, Confidence, and Treatment Practices in Their Provision of Psychotherapy to Autistic Youth and Youth with ADHD.
Caitlyn Gallant, Flora Roudbarani, Alaa Ibrahim and 2 others
PMID 36076117WHAT IT FOUND
Clinicians used the same psychotherapy approaches for autistic youth and youth with ADHD, but rated them less helpful for autistic clients.
They reported lower knowledge and confidence for autism across every item, despite high overall confidence.
Key findings
01Clinicians reported using similar treatment approaches for autistic youth and youth with ADHD, with CBT the most common for both groups.
02For nine of 20 treatment approaches, clinicians rated interventions as more helpful for clients with ADHD than for autistic clients.
03Clinicians reported significantly lower self-rated knowledge and confidence when treating autistic clients compared to clients with ADHD.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
All data were self-reported, which may not reflect actual clinical practice. The sample was primarily social workers with cognitive-behavioural orientations, mostly women and White, from Ontario, limiting generalizability to other professions, regions, or healthcare systems. Survey recruitment occurred during the pandemic, which may have affected response rates and participant representativeness. The study did not assess how clinicians handled clients with co-occurring autism and ADHD.
Declared interests
The study was funded by Children's Mental Health Ontario, a York University Research Chair in Autism and Neurodevelopmental Disability Mental Health, and the LaMarsh Centre for Child and Youth Research.
The easy way to misread this
Do not interpret the lower helpfulness and confidence ratings for autistic clients as evidence that psychotherapy is ineffective for them. These are clinicians' self-perceptions, not measured treatment outcomes. The study shows a gap in clinician confidence and knowledge, not a gap in therapeutic efficacy.