STAR-CAT: Supporting Parents and their Autistic Children through Anxiety Treatment
- Mental health HTA and economic evaluations
Autistic children experience higher rates of anxiety, yet effective treatments often require intensive specialist input and are not widely accessible in the NHS. While brief, parent‑led approaches show promise and have been adapted for autistic children, there is limited evidence on whether these can achieve comparable outcomes to usual care, how acceptable they are to families and therapists and, importantly, whether they represent good value for money.
This project addresses these gaps by evaluating an online, therapist‑supported parent‑led intervention (OSI‑A) for autistic (or likely autistic) children aged 5–12 years with anxiety problems, compared with usual NHS care, using a multi‑site, two‑parallel‑arm, open‑label, randomised controlled non‑inferiority trial. Alongside assessing clinical outcomes and the experiences of children, parents and therapists, the study places a strong emphasis on within‑trial cost‑effectiveness to determine whether the intervention can deliver effective support in a scalable and affordable way, and to inform its potential implementation in routine services.
Funder: The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR)
Co-investigators
- Professor Mara Violato, University of Oxford
- Dr Kathy Leadbitter, University of Manchester
- Professor Michael Larkin, Aston University
- Dr Tasha Cullingham, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust
- Professor Jonathan Green, University of Manchester
- Professor Ly‑Mee Yu, University of Oxford
- Mrs Una Rennard, PPI Lead
Our Team
Chief Investigator
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Paul Foundation Professor of Developmental Clinical Psychology |