Rizwan Taj, Khawaja Siham Sikander, Asima Mehboob Khan.
Depression and Anxiety disorders in Children with Chronic Medical Problems and Healthy Children.
J Coll Physicians Surg Pak Jan ;12(10):599-601.

Objective: To know the frequency of depression and anxiety disorders in children with chronic medical problems as compared to healthy children. Design: This is a comparative study. Place and Duration of Study : The study was carried out at the Children`s hospital of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences and conducted from December 2000 to May 2001. Subjects and Methods: One hundred children between the ages of 5 years to 15 years admitted at the Children`s Hospital of Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences were administered the Children`s Interview for Psychiatric Syndromes published by the American Psychiatric press. All these children had chronic medical problem of more than one year. Similarly, in the control group same instrument was applied. Results: Eighty percent of the children in the study group received a diagnosis of major mood disorder, dysthymic disorder and/or generalised anxiety disorder. In the control group only six percent of the children received a diagnosis of generalized anxiety disorder. Conclusion: The frequency of developing some form of a psychiatric disorder in children suffering from chronic medical illnesses is quite high as compared to healthy children. Better liaison is required between physician and psychiatrist to improve early detection and treatment of psychiatric problems in such children.

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