Treat mental disorders rapidly in children

Treat mental disorders in children quickly

14/10/2013

Mental illnesses such as ADHD, anxiety or depression are increasingly being discovered in children. For many, they lead to stressful problems later in school. Experts believe that they can and should be treated much earlier.

Children under six years affected
Studies have shown that about ten percent of preschool children have clinically relevant mental disorders. This refers to impairments with a high level of suffering, such as eating disorders, excessive crying or post-traumatic stress disorder, and even autistic and ADHD disorders. Many parents often do not know what's going on with their child and are over-mediated. First contact person is always the pediatrician. Even educators and early intervention centers should pay more attention to signs and in case of mental abnormalities to encourage a visit to the specialist or psychiatry.

Quite often waiting times of more than 6 months are accepted, as there are not many centers in Germany specializing in the treatment of preschool children. In the future, offers will have to be expanded to meet the ever increasing number of consultations and necessary treatments, says Professor Alexander von Gontard, director of the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at the Saarland University Hospital.

Advice is often enough
In the beginning, the parents should always first clarify whether there is a real disorder that needs to be treated. In many cases, the advice is sufficient. As a next step, parent training, parent interaction training and visiting a parent group is advisable. It is important: the younger the children are, the more the work has to be done through the parents and with the parents. The sooner the therapy is started, the more suffering and secondary consequences can be prevented. Only from the age of four you can also perform individual therapies with the child.

ADHD recognizable at the age of three at the earliest
More and more schoolchildren in Germany are diagnosed with ADHD and often treated with drugs such as Ritalin. Often without accompanying psychotherapy. One can determine ADHD of all at the earliest with three years, so the expert. ADHD usually has significant social consequences for small children. There are problems in dealing with peers. For the expert, parent-child training is the first priority of the treatment. Only if this shows no significant success and the child is over four years, should a drug treatment be considered. (Fr)

Picture: Helene Souza