Lodewyk et al. (2023) examine how adverse events are monitored, assessed, and reported in studies evaluating psychosocial interventions for children and adolescents with mental health disorders.
The review found that adverse event monitoring is rarely and inconsistently incorporated into studies of pediatric psychosocial interventions. Although psychosocial treatments are often assumed to be low risk, fewer than one-third of included studies systematically monitored adverse events, and very few assessed event severity or whether events were attributable to treatment. The authors identified substantial variation in definitions, assessment procedures, and reporting practices across studies. Overall, the findings highlight the need for standardised approaches to harm monitoring so that clinicians, young people, and families can make informed decisions about psychosocial treatments.