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Predicting post-treatment symptom severity for adults receiving psychological therapy in routine care for generalised anxiety disorder: a machine learning approach

Delamain, H; Buckman, JEJ; O'Driscoll, C; Suh, JW; Stott, J; Singh, S; Naqvi, SA; ... Saunders, R; + view all (2024) Predicting post-treatment symptom severity for adults receiving psychological therapy in routine care for generalised anxiety disorder: a machine learning approach. Psychiatry Research , 336 , Article 115910. 10.1016/j.psychres.2024.115910. Green open access

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Abstract

Approximately half of generalised anxiety disorder (GAD) patients do not recover from first-line treatments, and no validated prediction models exist to inform individuals or clinicians of potential treatment benefits. This study aimed to develop and validate an accurate and explainable prediction model of post-treatment GAD symptom severity. Data from adults receiving treatment for GAD in eight Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) services (n=15,859) were separated into training, validation and holdout datasets. Thirteen machine learning algorithms were compared using 10-fold cross-validation, against two simple clinically relevant comparison models. The best-performing model was tested on the holdout dataset and model-specific explainability measures identified the most important predictors. A Bayesian Additive Regression Trees model out-performed all comparison models (MSE=16.54 [95 % CI=15.58; 17.51]; MAE=3.19; R²=0.33, including a single predictor linear regression model: MSE=20.70 [95 % CI=19.58; 21.82]; MAE=3.94; R²=0.14). The five most important predictors were: PHQ-9 anhedonia, GAD-7 annoyance/irritability, restlessness and fear items, then the referral-assessment waiting time. The best-performing model accurately predicted post-treatment GAD symptom severity using only pre-treatment data, outperforming comparison models that approximated clinical judgement and remaining within the GAD-7 error of measurement and minimal clinically important differences. This model could inform treatment decision-making and provide desired information to clinicians and patients receiving treatment for GAD.

Type: Article
Title: Predicting post-treatment symptom severity for adults receiving psychological therapy in routine care for generalised anxiety disorder: a machine learning approach
Location: Ireland
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1016/j.psychres.2024.115910
Publisher version: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.psychres.2024.115910
Language: English
Additional information: © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. under a Creative Commons license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Keywords: Personalised treatment, Prognosis prediction, Outcome monitoring, Ensemble modelling, TRIPOD
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > School of Life and Medical Sciences > Faculty of Brain Sciences > Div of Psychology and Lang Sciences > Clinical, Edu and Hlth Psychology
URI: https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10190879
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