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Acting early by providing children and youth with evidence-based treatments for mental health problems may prevent chronic illness and deterioration of other health outcomes and quality of life. Interventions targeting mental illness encompass a range of treatments including (but not restricted to) psychological therapies, medications, peer-supported interventions, educational interventions, physical activity, nutritional interventions and alternative therapies such as acupuncture and yoga. The purpose of this study is to create a mega-map of the mental health interventions that have been evaluated up to now targeting moderate to severe mental illness in children and adolescents. We will also map the current available evidence and certainty of the primary outcomes of interventions targeting eight major sub-populations of children and adolescents. This will provide clinicians, policy makers and researchers with important background knowledge when considering or prioritizing treatments or for initiating new research efforts. This will be done by performing a secondary analysis (through a mapping review) of eight recently conducted reviews of systematic reviews of interventions targeting young people with ADHD, anxiety, depression, bipolar disorder, psychosis (including schizophrenia), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) self-harm and trauma (including PTSD).

Background: Depression is a common mental health problem in dolescents with a one-year prevalence estimate of 5.6% among 13-18-year olds. It can cause problems at school, with friends, and in the family and may have adverse effects on educational attainment and later employment status. Objective: The objective of this systematic review was to examine the effects of exercise interventions as treatment of depression in children and adolescents compared to other treatments or no treatment. Methods: The bibliographic databases Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), Medline (Ovid), Embase (Ovid), PsycINFO (Ovid), AMED (Ovid), SPORTDiscus, PEDro, CINAHL (EBSCO), ERIC (EBSCO) and Web of Science were searched from inception to December 2018, in addition to grey literature, ongoing and unpublished trials. Trials were included if they were randomized controlled trials of exercise interventions for children and adolescents 6-18 years with depression. Two authors independently screened references, extracted data and assessed the quality of the included trials with the Cochrane Risk of Bias tool. The certainty of the evidence was assessed using GRADE. Results: Of 11007 retrieved references, four trials were included (n=143). Meta-analysis was conducted using a random-effects model on the outcome of depression post-intervention and found a moderate effect in favour of exercise in adolescents (SMD= -0.59, 95% CI= -1.11, to -0.07). The trials had a low number of participants and were assessed as having an unclear or high risk of bias. The certainty of the evidence was graded as low. None of the trials commented on the presence or absence of adverse events. Conclusion: Exercise appears to be a promising intervention for children and adolescents with depression.However, large, high-quality trials with longer follow-up time are needed.

School performance in children exposed to neglect, abuse or maltreatment, and orphaned children We conducted a review of school performance in children who had been exposed to abuse, maltreatment or neglect. After searching for relevant studies up to 15 August 2016, we included 14 studies that enrolled 267,805 children and adolescents. We also searched for studies on school performance in orphaned children, and included 29 potentially relevant studies. We did not analyse these further, but assembled them in a separate list. Why is this important? Children who experience lack of adequate care, abuse or neglect are at increased risk of psychological, social, and behavioral impairment. Whereas orphans may struggle to attend school for practical reasons (such as lack of funds, having to work or care for younger siblings); both orphans and children who experience other types of inadequate care may have experienced or be experiencing traumatic events that affect their abilities to learn. We wanted to answer the following questions: 1) How does child neglect and child abuse affect children’s learning outcomes? 2) How does being an orphan affect children’s learning outcomes? Research findings Question 1): Abuse/maltreatment/neglect Poor school performance We found that the risk of poor school performance was higher among children exposed to abuse or neglect than among unexposed children. Poor school performance occurred more than twice as frequently among children exposed to sexual abuse than among unexposed children (low quality evidence). School performance Children exposed to abuse or neglect had poorer school performance than unexposed children. We found a large difference in school performance between children exposed to neglect and unexposed children, where unexposed children did better in school than abused/neglected children (moderate quality evidence). Question 2): Orphans We found 29 potentially relevant studies concerning school performance in orphans, but did not analyse these further. 5 Authors' conclusions The research evidence suggests that children who have been exposed to abuse, maltreatment or neglect in childhood perform worse in school than unexposed children. The studies we found vary in methodological quality, and better quality research is needed to confirm these findings. The scientific literature regarding school performance in orphans is yet to be explored, although the number of potentially relevant studies identified in our search suggests that a systematic review of these studies might prove useful.

Hensikten med denne systematiske oversikten er å besvare følgende problemstilling: Hva er effekten av å involvere barn i mekling? Vi søkte systematisk etter forskningslitteratur i internasjonale elektroniske databaser og gikk gjennom referanselistene til de inkluderte studiene. Vi valgte ut litteratur i henhold til forhåndsbestemte inklusjons- og eksklusjonskriterier, og vurderte risiko for skjevheter i de inkluderte studiene. Vi inkluderte åtte publikasjoner fra to studier. Én av studiene var en randomisert kontrollert studie som ble utført i perioden 2009-2012 i USA. Den andre studien av en ikke-randomisert kontrollert studie som ble utført i perioden 2004-2005 i Australia. Ikke-RCT’en fra Australia var den eneste studien som rapporterte effekter på vårt hovedutfall. Her ble barnas velvære og psykososiale problemer målt med den sammenlagte skalaen Totale vansker og delskalaen Emosjonelle symptomer fra det foreldreutfylte spørreskjemaet Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). På grunn av for få inkluderte studier kunne vi ikke gjøre metaanalyse. Risiko for skjevheter var høy i begge de inkluderte studiene. Denne oppsummeringen har vist at det er usikkert om det å involvere barn i mekling har noen effekt på barnets velvære og psykososiale problemer. Det er også usikkert om det å involvere barn i mekling har noen effekt på konfliktnivå og samarbeidsevne hos foreldre, avtale mellom foreldre og om saken havner i retten.