Child and youth mental disorders : prevalence and evidence-based interventions : a research report

Summary: "This report summarizes recent high-quality research evidence on the prevalence of the major mental disorders affecting children and youth and on effective prevention and treatment interventions for addressing these disorders. According to estimates derived from recent well-designed prevalence surveys in other countries, as many as 12.6% of children and youth aged 4-17 years - or nearly 84,000 in British Columbia (BC) - are likely experiencing clinically significant mental disorders at any given time. These surveys also reveal stark service shortfalls in that under one third of young people with disorders - just 31% or 26,000 in BC - are estimated to be receiving specialized mental health services. Effective prevention programs are imperative to lessen the burden of avoidable mental disorders and to reduce the need for treatment services over time. At the same time, all children and youth with established disorders need to receive effective treatments to alleviate their distress, address their symptoms and reduce their impairment. For both prevention and treatment, there are numerous interventions showing positive outcomes based on rigorous studies in children and youth. Effective prevention programs range from cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) (for anxiety and major depressive disorders) to parent training (for substance use and conduct disorders). Effective treatments range from CBT (for anxiety, major depressive and substance use disorders) to parent training (for conduct disorder) to medications (for attention-deficit/hyperactivity and bipolar disorders, as well as schizophrenia)."--Executive summary.