Parent-training/education programmes in the management of children with conduct disorders: developing an integrated evidence-based perspective for health and social care

This article reports on the first health technology appraisal conducted jointly between the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence ( NICE) and Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE). The appraisal systematically reviewed evidence for the clinical effectiveness of parent-training/education programmes in the management of children with conduct disorders. This appraisal is highly topical in the light of cross-cutting policy agendas concerned with increasing parenting capacity. It is also methodologically innovative in its approach to synthesising the meta-analysis of trial evidence on outcomes of programmes with qualitative evidence on process and implementation. The appraisal found parent-training/education programmes to be effective in the management of children with conduct disorders, and it identifies the generic characteristics of effective programmes. It is concluded that this approach offers an exemplar for the development of systematic reviewing of complex psychosocial interventions that are relevant to integrated children's services.