EPIDEMIOLOGY AND CHILD PSYCHIATRY

[摘要] The best evidence is that around 10% of children have a recognizable psychiatric disorder. This is a sobering reminder of the impact of this major public health problem today. This issue of the journal reports a series of papers presented at an institute of epidemiology on child psychiatry, and it provides important facts for any pediatrician interested in the behavioral issues of children. There is a useful series of papers on causation and also on treatment. For instance, Needleman and colleagues present data on the correlation of increasing lead burden in a population of schoolchildren with psychological disturbance. Rutter presents the Isle of Wight studies of a total population of children, demonstrating how different behavioral problems are correlated with different epidemiologic factors, thus allowing separation of what had seemed similar problems. Suicide, one of the few causes of death that is increasing in incidence in children, is examined and shown to be a special phenomenon of recent cohorts of children. Robbins' classic follow-up of a group of children who persisted with behavioral problems in adult life demonstrated that this group mainly comprised those who had shown antisocial rather than other behavioral disorders in childhood. Kellam and colleagues describe a treatment phenomenon, namely, that adolescents use mental health services on the basis of the nature of the service, and how it is perceived, more than on the severity of their illness.A short summary cannot do justice to a 141-page monograph, but the quality and the importance of this epidemiologic section makes this required reading for serious students of child behavior.

[学科分类] 儿科学