How well can commonly used anxiety scales detect treatment outcomes in the context of autism?
Huilin Chen, Jeffrey J Wood, Connor M Kerns and 4 others
PMID 40616403WHAT IT FOUND
For autistic children, the Child Anxiety Impact Scale (CAIS-P) total score accurately detects recovery from all anxiety diagnoses, unlike standard symptom scales.
However, no questionnaire reliably predicts recovery from just the primary diagnosis, and the CAIS-P subscales do not work as expected.
Key findings
01The CAIS-P was the only measure with satisfactory diagnostic accuracy for detecting recovery from all anxiety diagnoses.
02No measure had satisfactory diagnostic accuracy for detecting recovery from primary anxiety diagnoses.
03The CAIS-P did not fit the original three-factor structure, so only total scores should be used.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The study only used parent reports, not child self-reports. Subgroup analyses relied on imputed data for some findings, which may introduce bias. The CAIS-P subscales did not match the original factor structure, limiting their usefulness. Results may not apply to children with intellectual disabilities or those outside the specific trial population.
Declared interests
Funding was provided by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. One author reports financial ties to pharmaceutical companies and test publishers, while others report institutional research funding.
The easy way to misread this
Do not use CAIS-P subscale scores to identify specific areas of anxiety impact, as the factor structure did not hold up in this sample. Also, do not assume these scales can track recovery from a single primary anxiety diagnosis, as none of the measures performed well for that specific outcome.
Summarised by AI from the full paper, without a clinician reviewing it. Check it against the source before it changes what you do. Read it on PubMed →