Health of children whose parents seek psychiatric care.
The study comprises 69 pre-school children whose parents, mainly mothers, had sought care at a department of psychiatry in Stockholm. The majority of the parents had attended for recurrent ambulatory treatment (58%) or had only come to the emergency room (25%). The children demonstrated a significantly higher frequency of somatic and emotional symptoms than a matched control group. To a large extent, the index children showed failure to thrive without any apparent organic cause. In exceptional cases there had been co-operation between the departments of psychiatry and paediatrics (one case) as well as between the departments of psychiatry and social welfare (five cases). There is an urgent need to develop methods within the scope of psychiatric care whereby the best interests of both the parents and the children are taken into consideration.
D000328:Adult; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000523:psychology; D002648:Child; D002673:Child, Hospitalized; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006130:Growth Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007373:Interinstitutional Relations; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000523:psychology*; D010290:Parents / Q000523:psychology*; D012946:Social Welfare