The Dollars and Cents of Treating Troubled Youth

June 21, 2016

After completing my thesis at Mt Mercy University on How Parents of Autistic Children Adapt and Persevere, I was asked to join a project with Dr. Jacob Christenson.  I was truly excited about the opportunity to participate in the research and writing process of this project. Our article was published in the “Child and Family  Studies Journal.” The article “The cost of Opposition Defiant Disorder and Distributive Disorder a review of the literature” can be found in the May 2016 edition.

This purpose of the paper was to review the literature on the treatment of Oppositional Defiant Disorder, with a specific focus on cost analyses. In general the literature shows that while there has been substantial research on Oppositional Defiant Disorder there has been little focus on the costs involved. A search of the major databases in psychology and the social sciences yielded only  seven  articles even  marginally appropriate for a review of costs associated with Oppositional Defiant  Disorder  and related  disruptive behavior. Interestingly, only two of these studies investigated treatment costs specifically associated with Oppositional Defiant Disorder. These studies showed that the treatment of Oppositional Defiant Disorder is much less expensive than the treatment of Conduct Disorder and family therapy is the most cost effective approach. Overall, the review showed that there is a dearth of literature related to treatment costs, which leads to the conclusion that much more research is needed on the cost of treating Oppositional Defiant Disorder.

I hope to continue working on publishing more work in the future. My next goal is to begin is working with Dr. Jacob Christenson  in rewriting  and submitting my thesis topic that focused on Autism for publishing.

– Shannon Parker, Lead Therapist for Washington Mental Health Center, Hillcrest Family Services