Youth anxiety review leaves uncertainty about the highest-ranked therapy
Acceptance and commitment therapy received the leading ranking, but its uncertainty interval included no difference. The authors describe the overall evidence as low quality.
Based on the published abstract. The full paper may contain additional methods, results and limitations.
The 30-second takeaway
The review ranked acceptance and commitment therapy highest, but that ranking is not firm evidence that it works best. Its estimate was imprecise and compatible with no difference. Cognitive behavioral therapy had a more clearly favorable interval, yet this does not establish superiority between the therapies or support a confident treatment hierarchy.
The authors report low evidence quality, substantial differences across studies and imprecise results. The abstract also omits follow-up durations, the anxiety measurement scale and the reference comparator for its numerical estimates.
Ranking versus certainty
A treatment can receive the highest ranking even when its estimated effect remains uncertain. Here, the credible interval for acceptance and commitment therapy crossed no difference, so the ranking alone cannot establish a reliable advantage.
Other approaches remain uncertain
The reported intervals for virtual reality exposure therapy and physical exercise also included no difference. These results leave benefit uncertain rather than demonstrating ineffectiveness, and the abstract does not resolve which children might respond to each approach.
The original publication
Effects of different interventions on anxiety disorders in children and adolescents: a systematic review and bayesian network meta-analysis.
Li L, Li Q, Wang J et al.
BMC Psychiatry · 2025
- PubMed ID
- 40859188
- Record checked
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