research on children's mental health
Although it is well established that primary care doctors are on the front lines in identifying and treating behavioral and emotional problems in children, there is little federally funded research in this area, according to a study by a Yale researcher published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
"We were looking at whether the funding for research in children's psycho-social issues that had been so heavily recommended in federal planning and policy documents was in evidence in the funded projects. In other words, did the money essentially match the written word," says Sarah Horwitz, associate professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Public Health at the School of Medicine. "We found that it did not, that indeed there was very little emphasis on research for children with emotional and behavioral disorders in primary care settings."
Horwitz and researchers from several other institutions came to their conclusion after conducting an analysis of the Computer Retrieval of Information on Scientific Projects database, which lists all of the projects funded by the federal Department of Health and Human Services.
Only 0.1% of the entire research portfolio examined children, adolescents or youth and primary care and only 2.3% of the federally funded research on children, adolescents or youth overall is dedicated to this area, the researchers found. Looking at one area specifically, only 6 of 103 federally funded research studies into depression were related to depression in children. "On a topic that is important across the lifespan, adults received more than 15 times the research attention compared with children," Horwitz says.
In the United States, 20% of children are diagnosed with behavioral and emotional problems, and yet only a small portion of those children ever receive services, Horwitz adds. "Kids get into the system through primary care when they are young and through the schools when they are older," she says. "You would expect the system that comes in contact with the kids would be very good at identifying, referring and treating kids with problems, yet there is a dearth of research in this area."
Without an understanding of the opportunities and barriers that face physicians confronted with these and a host of other important issues, primary care will remain an under-used venue for providing mental health services to children, the researchers said. "Developing knowledge of the capacity for change in primary care necessitates creating a well-planned research agenda that builds knowledge in an orderly fashion and implementing it," they urge.
-- By Jacqueline Weaver
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