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Using intervention trials in developmental psychiatry to illuminate basic science

Division of Psychiatry, University of Manchester

Graham Dunn

Health Methodology Research Group, University of Manchester, UK

Correspondence: Jonathan Green, Room 4.319, 4th Floor (East), University Place, University of Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester M13 9PL, UK. Email: jonathan.green{at}manchester.ac.uk

Declaration of interest

None. Funding detailed in Acknowledgements.

Jonathan Green (pictured) is Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the University of Manchester. Graham Dunn is Professor of Biomedical Statistics, also at the University of Manchester.

We discuss the nature of intervention in developmental psychiatry and the implication of this for clinical trials. New ideas in the design of randomised trials for complex interventions, along with recent statistical advances in causal analysis, give such trials additional potential as a means by which to study the basic science of complex developmental disorders. The challenge for designers of trials is to model designs effectively to make best use of these new opportunities. We give examples of how this might be done and discuss implications for future trials designs in the area.