Kim SK, McKay D, Cepeda SL, et al. - In clinical trials, random assignment to treatment conditions is involved, which does not guarantee a lack of systematic variation in the outcomes, and the application of covariation methods for multiple dependent measures requires complicated assumptions that are often not met. In this study, matched correspondence analysis (CA) was used to control systematic variation and handle multiple outcomes.

• Anxiety symptom severity was assessed in 109 children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) across four studies; participants in these studies were randomly assigned to either cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) or treatment as usual or waitlist (TAU/WT).

• Disparities in symptom severity at baseline carried over to the improvement levels at posttreatment.

• After controlling the symptom severity disparity at baseline, investigation of the improvement at posttreatment was done between CBT and TAU/WT.

• CBT was identified as efficacious in treating anxiety severity and anxiety-related impairment.