Abstract

This study examined the costs of pervasive developmental disorder (PDD) treatment in a large healthcare organization. When compared to individual therapy and mixed therapy, family therapy had significantly fewer sessions, fewer episodes of care, and better cost-effectiveness. Individual therapy had significantly shorter treatment length than mixed therapy. There were no differences in treatment length or number of episodes by license, but dropout and cost-effectiveness were significantly different. Medical doctors had the highest dropout and best cost-effectiveness, while Marriage and Family Therapists had the lowest dropout and Masters of Social Work had the poorest cost-effectiveness. Children had significantly higher dropout than other age groups. An autism diagnosis was associated with fewer sessions but additional episodes of care when compared to PDD. Having a comorbid diagnosis is associated with longer treatment length but slightly fewer episodes of care. A regression model to predict number of episodes of care by intensity of treatment, provider type, and modality, intensity of treatment explained only 6% of the variance.

Degree

MS

College and Department

Family, Home, and Social Sciences; Family Life; Marriage and Family Therapy

Rights

http://lib.byu.edu/about/copyright/

Date Submitted

2013-03-15

Document Type

Thesis

Handle

http://hdl.lib.byu.edu/1877/etd6046

Keywords

pervasive developmental disorder, autism, cost effectiveness, family therapy, individual therapy

Language

English

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