Less than half of children treated within 3 months-ScienceDaily

Researchers at Princeton University used a national database of claims to claim adolescents (mostly 12 years old and suffering from anxiety and depression) after the first episode of mental illness. ) Type was investigated.

Less than half of the children were treated within 3 months, and 22.5% of the children received only drug therapy, researchers report. Minutes of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)..

Forty-five percent of children taking the drug are the first to treat a highly addictive benzodiazepine class drug (such as barium or Xanax), a tricyclic antidepressant, or a drug not approved by the FDA. Was prescribed as.

The findings also occur in zip codes that are relatively well supported by child psychiatrists, suggesting that they are not simply the result of a shortage of doctors.

“If children receive substandard care, it is often due to a shortage of doctors in the area, but regardless of zip code, how to treat children after the first episode of mental illness. Turns out that there are many differences, which some doctors may have made suspicious treatment decisions, stating that this should be a danger signal for people in the medical community. ” Said Janet M. Curry, a research co-author who is a professor of economic affairs at Princeton’s Henry Putnam. University and co-director of the Princetons Health and Wellbeing Center.

Curry is Emily Cuddy, Ph.D. A candidate for the Princeton Ministry of Economy.

The team is a participant in the Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) Alliance for Health Research and provides key researcher data from BCBS Axis.

Of the more than 2 million children covered in this dataset, 202,066 had at least one claim related to mental illness, which Currie and Cuddy used for their analysis.

Researchers focused on the first mental health claims of adolescence-children hospitalized or treated in an emergency room for cases such as suicide attempt, self-harm, suicidal ideation, and panic attacks. Reflects us. They also examined children who had a detailed assessment of their mental health status. There are relatively clear guidelines on how these children should be treated by doctors.

General medical advice suggests that your child will receive prompt follow-up treatment. As a result, researchers considered treatment within three months of the first incident. Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) class drugs are usually tolerated by most children and are usually given by a doctor as the first-line treatment for anxiety and depression when the drug is considered necessary. Recommended.

Still, what the researchers found was far more amazing: only 70.8% of children received follow-up treatment in the first three months, which was very different. This ranged from 50% to just over 90%, depending on the zip code.

Many children received medication only, but it is generally considered appropriate to start with treatment alone or combine medication with treatment. Again, this varied from 17% to 62% depending on the zip code.

Almost half of the children given the drug were prescribed drugs with more serious potential side effects, and there was little or no evidence of efficacy in the children.

“Of course, as a researcher, I can’t say that a particular child shouldn’t have been given a particular drug. Still, it turns out that it’s due to regional and interregional variability. There is a very similar pattern among healthcare professionals in places that are supplied to, which is worrisome when it comes to care. “

Since these were all children of the insured, the author focused on the disparity in the types of care received by these insured children, rather than the disparity in access to care due to insurance coverage. It is important to be careful. By focusing on insured children, they show that lack of insurance is not the only obstacle to long-term care, and that even insured people are commonly treated to raise a red light. ..

These results suggest that some clinicians do not follow widely agreed general guidelines for the treatment of newly diagnosed children with mental health disorders. The authors conclude that further research is needed on the reasons for these patterns and their effects on affected children.

“Good mental health is very important for the future of children. We hope that emphasizing these patterns will help start dialogues that lead to better mental health care for children. Clinicians will guide you. If not, this reflects their training and other factors and shows how the care available to children with mental health problems can be improved. “