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Usual care for mental health problems in children with epilepsy: A cohort study
- Source :
- F1000Research
- Publication Year :
- 2020
-
Abstract
- Background: Epilepsy is one of the most common chronic paediatric conditions. Children and young people with epilepsy are at a significantly higher risk of developing mental health problems relative to the general population, yet the majority of these problems are unrecognised and under-treated in clinical practice. Although there is little epilepsy-specific guidance as to what interventions to use, researchers suggest there is no reason why clinicians should not be using the evidence base. Given the poor prognosis of untreated mental health difficulties, this cohort study sought to identify what psychological treatment young people with epilepsy with mental health needs receive in routine practice. Methods: Participants were children and young people aged 3 to 18 attending paediatric neurology clinics. The parents of those children who met threshold for impairing symptoms on the Strengths and Difficulties questionnaire were asked to complete the Development and Well-being Assessment (DAWBA), an online clinical assessment designed to generate psychiatric diagnoses. Participants who met clinical threshold for a disorder according to the DAWBA were provided with a bespoke measure asking questions regarding their experience with treatment for mental health support. Results: 16 of the 46 parents who completed the DAWBA reported that they had experienced previous or current support for their child’s mental health difficulties. The mental health support offered to families was highly variable, inadequate and often not clearly compliant with existing UK National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidelines for mental health treatment in children and young people. Conclusions: The present study demonstrates the inconsistency and inadequacy of mental health provision for children and young people with epilepsy. Future work should explore reasons for the treatments offered failing to adhere to existing guidance for mental health difficulties in children, as well as possible solutions to this.
- Subjects :
- medicine.medical_specialty
media_common.quotation_subject
Population
Psychological intervention
Nice
General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
03 medical and health sciences
Epilepsy
0302 clinical medicine
Excellence
030225 pediatrics
medicine
General Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutics
education
Psychiatry
media_common
computer.programming_language
education.field_of_study
General Immunology and Microbiology
business.industry
General Medicine
Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire
Articles
medicine.disease
CAMHS
Mental health
Paediatric
business
computer
030217 neurology & neurosurgery
Cohort study
Research Article
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 20461402
- Volume :
- 7
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- F1000Research
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....2c8fb3a254d69bbd589ec9d52004f977