Psychological Disorders Among Children and Adolescents - Research Paper Example

? Psychological Disorders By adolescence, many teenagers have been diagnosed with psychological disorders which range from ADHD to bipolar disorders. The common symptoms for the mental disordes are the mood swings and irritability. The assessment of the psychiatric condition of a child starts by first getting the mental history of the child preferably by interviewing the parent or the child. Different psychological disorders affect people in different ages. The people affected by the psychological disorders face many hardships in their daily lives. The aim of this paper is to discuss the psychological disorders among the children and adolescents, and the interventions necessary to improve the productivity of the children and teenagers with the disorders. Key words: disorders, psychological and interventions. Psychological Disorders Introduction A psychological disorder is a pattern of behavioral or psychological symptoms that impact multiple life areas or create distress for the people experiencing these symptoms. A mental disorder is a psychological pattern or anomaly, which is reflected in behavior. Mental disorders are defined by combination of how an individual feels, acts, think or perceives. According to the World Health Organization (WHO) Report of 2007, over a third of people in most of the countries report problems at some point in their life, which are diagnosed as mental disorders. Child and adolescent mental disorders are common problems experienced by these groups. The disorders can affect the productivity of the children and adolescents just as it has implications on the adults. The aim of this paper is to examine the different types of inventions that that can be put in place to enhance the productivity of the children and adolescents who have the psychological disorders. Many researches have been carried out to determine the impacts of the psychological disorders on the lives of the people who bear the problem and the burden of staying with the disorder. These researches have focused on the implications of the disorders on the lives of the children and the adolescents that motivated me to find out about the interventions that can improve on the productivity of the children suffering from the disorders (Atkinson, 2006). The root causes of mental disorders vary and in many cases they are not known or they are unclear. The people suffering from mental conditions can only access their specialized treatment from mental health professionals. Psychiatric treatment and psychotherapy are the only two major treatments for those suffering from mental disorders. Mental disorders treatments do not really require specialized treatment in terms of offering medicines to the affected people, but actually require psychological treatments. This is where the psychologists or the psychiatrists come in to help these patients. Here, the patients undergo through a therapy session with the psychiatrists, which helps them overcome the conditions they face. In other words, basically, psychiatric treatment and psychotherapy are the most common methods that are used to treat mental related disorders. These types of treatment help a lot in treating these disorders, which are usually very dangerous when not well treated. In fact, if not well treated, they can cause a lot of damage and sometimes even death and so, they should be treated as soon as possible to avoid further damage on the affected person. If the people having these disorders undergo through psychiatry or therapy sessions, they start recovering slowly by slowly, and eventually recover completely. Most studies on mental illness have focused on the psychological disorders in adults. It is just of recent that there has been some focus on the mental illnesses of children and the adolescents. The researchers are now examining the growth and development of children as they try to establish what is normal and what is abnormal. The key goal of the researches is trying to study the childhood development in view to try and predict and hopefully prevent the developmental problems that could lead to mental illnesses. It is the nature of these studies and their quest to find out the problems that lead to mental disorders among the children and the adolescents that triggered me to research on the possible interventions that can improve the productivity of the children already suffering from the disorder and how the disorders impact on the productivity of the children (Angold & Costello, 2000). The common mental disorders that could impact on the productivity of the children and the adolescents include the following: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) Borderline personality disorder Depression Down syndrome Fragile X syndrome Schizophrenia. Discussion of key terms Disorders are defined as randomness, or a lack of intelligent pattern. According to Atkinson (2006), a mental disorder is a psychological pattern or anomaly which is potentially reflected in behavior and which is not considered part of the normal development. An intervention is an effort by people, organizations or governments to help someone get professional help due to kind of traumatic event or crisis or other serious problem (Classi, Ward & Johnston, 2011). Psychological are the mental concepts which may include perception, cognition, attention, emotion, personality and behavior. Psychological knowledge is often applied in the treatment of mental health problems and understanding mental problems (Classi et al., 2012). Literature Review A qualitative research was carried out to investigate the diagnostic prevalence of the psychological disorders found in children and adolescents with relation to service use, demographic connections and global impairment. The study aimed at analyzing the relationship of between the rates of psychiatric disorders and factors like sex, family income and parental education. The research included children and adolescents aged between 4-17 years from Puerto Rico who were randomly selected. From the research the results showed that some disorders prevalence increased with age, such disorders included the depression, social phobia and anxiety behavior. Other disorders included hyperactivity disorders and oppositional defiant disorders. The children living in urban areas had high prevalence rates of these disorders compared to those in the rural areas of Puerto Rico. The study showed that factors like income, education had no effect on the prevalence rates. These results are the indication that socioeconomic factors have no influence on the prevalence of psychological disorders. The fact that some disorders increase with age could be due to the effects related to brain development during the young age. Environmental factors could also be contributing factor to the high prevalence as the age advances (Dech, Abikoff, & Koplewicz, 1990). The environmental factors comprise of the social factors surrounding the child as he/she develops. The results further were an indication that children are not necessary born with the psychological disorders but they may develop in the course of growth. The prevalence of the disorders among the urban children and adults was high do to high stress lives associated with the busy town lives. Another quantitative research was carried to study the causes of the inability to complete secondary level education, and the reasons for involvement of the young adults in criminal activities. The study aimed at examining the test ability of diagnostic, symptom count, and adaptive functioning in adolescent in an attempt to predict their inability to complete the secondary education and the reasons for criminal involvement in the young adulthood. The results showed that the adolescents with anxiety, depression and disruptive and substance abuse disorder ranging from 2.89-2.91 more likely not complete secondary school education unlike their counterparts who have no psychological disorders. The same research showed that young adults with disruptive disorders had 4.04 times more likely to experience legal issues involving police than their counterparts who had no mental problems. The combination of age, gender and social class within a logistical regression model conceded 87% specificity and 89% sensitivity at p?0.13 cut off for predicting school non completion. The future criminal involvement was 76% at optimum cut off value specificity and 75% sensitivity (Vander et al., 2002). These results are pointers to the impacts of mental disorders on the educational development of children. It is clear from the results that children with mental disorders have lower chances of completing school compared to their fellow age mates who are not mentally impaired. The crime rate also increased in children who had mental disorder. The results are an indication of the negative impacts the brain disorders have on the children and the adolescents. Children and adolescents with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often have a co-occurring reading disorder. A research was carried out to assess differences between children with ADHD without reading disorder and those with ADHD and co-occurring reading disorder. Data from the U.S. Thomson Reuter Marketscan Databases for the years 2005 to 2007 was used, the analysis compared the medical records of patient demographics, morbidities, and medication use of children aged below 18 years. The results reviewed that patients with ADHD and reading disorder were significantly younger, more likely to have received a procedure code associated with formal psychological or non-psychological testing, and more likely to have been diagnosed with bipolar disorder, conduct disorder, or depression. They were not most likely to have received an antidepressant, anti-manic (bipolar), or antipsychotic, and were significantly less likely to have received a prescription for a stimulant medication. From this study results, it is apparent there are differences in the patients’ characteristics, morbidities, and medication use when comparing children with ADHD only to those with ADHD and reading disorder (Angold & Costello, 2000). A research was carried out to examine the impact of co-occurring social and emotional difficulties on missed school days and healthcare utilization among children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). The data used was from 2007 U.S National Health Interview Survey. Cohort study was used to study the participants. The data collected was on the demographic, health, health treatment and social emotional status. Of the 5896 children aged 6–17 years in the 2007 NHIS, 432 (7.3%) had ADHD, based on parental report. Children with ADHD and comorbid depression, anxiety, or phobias had significantly greater odds of experiencing over two weeks of missed school days; they also missed over 6 visits to a healthcare provider, compared with ADHD children without those comorbidities (Classi et al., 2012). The results are an indication of how ADHD affects the school attendance of children. Poor performance can result due to the poor school attendance hence there is significant reduction in productivity of the children with the disorder (Field et al., 1992). A cohort study was carried out to examine the relationship between young adult personality disorder and childhood psychopathology. The sample used was a random one, and it involved 551 youths, whose age ranged between 9 to 16 years, and these were the ones used in the first assessment. Anxiety disorders, disruptive disorders and major depressions were found to significantly increase young adult personality disorder’s odds which are independent of any personality disorder associated with adolescents. Axis I and axis II disorder’s co morbidity intensified young adult personality disorder’s odds, relative to a single axis odds disorder. Personality pathology assessment before late adolescence can sometimes be warranted. Adolescent or childhood axis I disorders may facilitate a maladaptive behaviors and environmental responses chain that facilitates relatively persistent psychopathology for a long period of time (Kasen et al., 1999). Sold off the counter are psychotropic drugs which are used in adolescent and children treatment. These drugs are used to treat children with the psychological disorders. Here, children and the adolescents lives are put at a direct risk related to overdosing or under dosing and a delayed risk of side effects that are long term. The doses selection in pediatric psychiatric patients needs a pharmacological consideration requirements regarding educating the child and the central nervous system development. Because of absence of a large portion of the psychotropic medications connected in the Child and Adolescent and Psychiatry, remedial medication following (TDM) is a valid instrument to advance pharmacotherapy and to empower to conform the dose of pills consistent with the aspects of the single patient (Mccellan and Werry, 2003). Multi-focus TDM studies prepare the distinguishing proof of age and improvement ward remedial runs of crimson ooze focuses and help a greatly qualified standardized documentation in the kid and youthful social insurance framework. What's more, they will furnish information for destiny look into on psychopharmacological medication in youngsters and youths as a pattern, for instance, for clinically pertinent collaborations with diverse co-pharmaceuticals. Consequently, a German-Austrian-Swiss "Competence Network on Therapeutic Drug Monitoring in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry" was organized, introducing a complete web information base for the accumulation of demographic, wellbeing and adequacy information and additionally, lifeblood centralizations of psychotropic pills in youngsters and youths (Mehler et al., 2009). Summary From the above literature reviews, there is evidence that treatment can help in to general psychological condition of mental health patients. Certain specific assessment procedures may also help in the identification of the severity of disorder within the children and adolescents. It was found that various interventions have been developed to address the psychological, emotional issues related to children and adolescents with the mental health issues. The various articles covered the requirement of various aspects of mental disorders. The quantity of research in the assessment, treatment and improving the general psychological condition of children and adolescents with various mental health issues is growing day by day. The areas of interest in the topic are not restricted to mere identification of disorder and treatment but to the social, emotional and academic outcome of intervention being followed by professionals in the field of psychological well being. There is however need for more studies to establish whether the psychological disorders are related to the environment in which the child is brought up in (Mukolo, Heflinger, & Wallston, 2010). References Angold, A., and Costello, E. J. (2000). The Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Assessment (CAPA). Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 39 (1). Atkinson, J. (2006). Private and Public Protection: Civil Mental Healthy Legislation. Edinburg: Dunedin Academic Press. Classi, P. M., Le, T. K., Ward, S., and Johnston, J. (2011). Patient characteristics, comorbidities, and medication use for children with ADHD with and without a co-occurring reading disorder: A retrospective cohort study. Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health, 5 (38). Classi, P., Milton, D., Ward, S., Sarsour, K., and Johnston, J. (2012). Social and emotional difficulties in children with ADHD and the impact on school attendance and healthcare utilization. Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health, 6 (33). Dech, B., Abikoff, H., and Koplewicz, H. S. (1990). A Survey of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Residents: Perceptions of the Ideal Training Program. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 29 (6). Field, T., Morrow, C., Valdeon, C., Larson, S., Kuhn, C., and Schanberg, S. (1992). Massage Reduces Anxiety in Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Patients. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 31 (1). Kasen, S., Cohen, P., Skodol, A. E., Johnson, J.G., and Brook, J. S. (1999). Influence of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Disorders on Young Adult Personality Disorder. Journal of Psychiatry, 156. Mccellan, J. M., and Werry, J. S. (2003). Evidence-Based Treatments in Child and Adolescent Psychiatry: An Inventory. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 42 (12). Mehler, C., Kolch, M., Kirchheiner, J., Antony, G., Fegert, J. M., and Gerlach, M. (2009). Drug monitoring in child and adolescent psychiatry for improved efficacy and safety of psycho pharmacotherapy. Child and Adolescent Psychiatry and Mental Health, 3 (14). Mukolo, A., Heflinger, C. A., and Wallston, K. A. (2010). The stigma of childhood mental disorders: A conceptual framework. Child Adolescent Psychiatry, 49 (2). Vander, S., Weiss, N., McKnight, B., Beresford, S., and Cohen, P. (2002). Which measure of adolescent psychiatric disorder—diagnosis, number of symptoms, or adaptive functioning best predicts adverse young adult outcomes? Journal of Epidemiol Community Health, 56 (1). Read More