title: Child psychiatric emergencies: a research note.
abstract: In a controlled study, emergency referrals to a child psychiatric clinic showed increased depressive and suicidal symptomatology and more perceptual abnormalities. There was also more commonly a recent deterioration in the presenting condition. Parents rated themselves as depressed more frequently and there were more problems in the father-child relationship. There were no significant associations between emergency referrals and ratings of family dysfunction, availability of an extended family or contact with social agencies, but there was a trend towards increased use of the latter by the emergency group. The results highlight the need for early child-centred psychiatric intervention in a minority of conditions of children and adolescents.
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D003863:Depression / Q000523:psychology; D004630:Emergencies; D004637:Emergency Services, Psychiatric; D005190:Family; D005219:Father-Child Relations; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D013406:Suicide, Attempted / Q000523:psychology