Anna Lichtwarck-Aschoff awarded with a VIDI for Tipping Points in Treatment Trajectories

When and why do clients suddenly get better and are there optimal times when treatments are most effective? These are the questions that I will address in my VIDI by looking at case-by-case clinical trajectories. Ultimately my aim is to identify general markers that allow us to explain why and predict when clinical change will happen. Work package 1 will be aimed at 1) identifying and predicting tipping points in clinical change trajectories and 2) creating a better understanding of these tipping points by modelling their underlying mechanisms and patterns of dynamic change. Work package 2 will test whether clients are more sensitive to intervention efforts at these tipping points.

Both studies will be conducted in residential youth care settings. Data are being collected to address the key objectives of the proposal but are simultaneously used for monitoring and feedback by clients and clinicians. Results from this project will inform practice on how to dynamically personalize interventions, specifying how to target, and timely adapt, intervention efforts to the particulars of individual clients according to the generalities of a formal theory. The proposed project focuses on youth, but the trans-theoretical and -diagnostic approach offers the unique opportunity to take personalized care beyond diagnostic categories, treatment models and settings, impacting on theory and clinical change more broadly.