RT Journal Article
SR Electronic
T1 Cohort profile: demographic and clinical characteristics of the MILESTONE longitudinal cohort of young people approaching the upper age limit of their child mental health care service in Europe
JF BMJ Open
JO BMJ Open
FD British Medical Journal Publishing Group
SP e053373
DO 10.1136/bmjopen-2021-053373
VO 11
IS 12
A1 Suzanne E Gerritsen
A1 Athanasios Maras
A1 Larissa S van Bodegom
A1 Mathilde M Overbeek
A1 Frank C Verhulst
A1 Dieter Wolke
A1 Rebecca Appleton
A1 Angelo Bertani
A1 Maria G Cataldo
A1 Patrizia Conti
A1 David Da Fonseca
A1 Nikolina Davidović
A1 Katarina Dodig-Ćurković
A1 Cecilia Ferrari
A1 Federico Fiori
A1 Tomislav Franić
A1 Charlotte Gatherer
A1 Giovanni De Girolamo
A1 Natalie Heaney
A1 Gaëlle Hendrickx
A1 Alfred Kolozsvari
A1 Flavia Micol Levi
A1 Kate Lievesley
A1 Jason Madan
A1 Ottaviano Martinelli
A1 Mathilde Mastroianni
A1 Virginie Maurice
A1 Fiona McNicholas
A1 Lesley O'Hara
A1 Moli Paul
A1 Diane Purper-Ouakil
A1 Veronique de Roeck
A1 Frédérick Russet
A1 Melanie C Saam
A1 Ilyas Sagar-Ouriaghli
A1 Paramala J Santosh
A1 Anne Sartor
A1 Aurélie Schandrin
A1 Ulrike M E Schulze
A1 Giulia Signorini
A1 Swaran P Singh
A1 Jatinder Singh
A1 Cathy Street
A1 Priya Tah
A1 Elena Tanase
A1 Sabine Tremmery
A1 Amanda Tuffrey
A1 Helena Tuomainen
A1 Therese A M J van Amelsvoort
A1 Anna Wilson
A1 Leanne Walker
A1 Gwen C Dieleman
A1 ,
YR 2021
UL http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/11/12/e053373.abstract
AB Purpose The presence of distinct child and adolescent mental health services (CAMHS) and adult mental health services (AMHS) impacts continuity of mental health treatment for young people. However, we do not know the extent of discontinuity of care in Europe nor the effects of discontinuity on the mental health of young people. Current research is limited, as the majority of existing studies are retrospective, based on small samples or used non-standardised information from medical records. The MILESTONE prospective cohort study aims to examine associations between service use, mental health and other outcomes over 24 months, using information from self, parent and clinician reports.Participants Seven hundred sixty-three young people from 39 CAMHS in 8 European countries, their parents and CAMHS clinicians who completed interviews and online questionnaires and were followed up for 2 years after reaching the upper age limit of the CAMHS they receive treatment at.Findings to date This cohort profile describes the baseline characteristics of the MILESTONE cohort. The mental health of young people reaching the upper age limit of their CAMHS varied greatly in type and severity: 32.8% of young people reported clinical levels of self-reported problems and 18.6% were rated to be ‘markedly ill’, ‘severely ill’ or ‘among the most extremely ill’ by their clinician. Fifty-seven per cent of young people reported psychotropic medication use in the previous half year.Future plans Analysis of longitudinal data from the MILESTONE cohort will be used to assess relationships between the demographic and clinical characteristics of young people reaching the upper age limit of their CAMHS and the type of care the young person uses over the next 2 years, such as whether the young person transitions to AMHS. At 2 years follow-up, the mental health outcomes of young people following different care pathways will be compared.Trial registration number NCT03013595.Data are available upon reasonable request. The participant consent forms restrict data sharing on a public repository. Requests for statistical code and anonymised data may be made to the corresponding author.