Psychiatric Complaints and Clinical Characteristics of Children Referred to Special Education By Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Outpatient Units

Objective:

The aim of this study was to evaluate demographic characteristics, complaints, and psychiatric diagnoses of children and adolescents that were refered to special education by child and adolescent psychiatry outpatient units.

Material and Methods:

We retrospectively reviewed records of 136 children and adolescent aged 0-17 years, that had applied to the child and adolescent psychiatry outpatient unit where the study was conducted . Age, gender, main complaints at the time of referal, mental capacity, comorbid physical and psychiatric disorders, history of medication used and psychiatric diagnoses of all cases were evaluated.

Results:

Of all cases, 65.4% were boys and 34.6%, girls. Mean age of cases was 6.5±3.1. Most cases (n=76, 55.9 %) were 0-6 years old. Most commonly observed complaints within this age group were ‘problems in language development”,‘delayed onset of speech compared to peers” ,‘diffi culties in comprehension and perception’’. For cases within 7-17 age range, inability to start reading”, 'academic failure' and 'defi cits in attention”' were determined as the most commonly reported complaints at referal. Most common psychiatric diagnoses were mental retardation (79.4%, n=108) and autism spectrum disorders (13.3%, n=18). Rate of any comorbid physical disorder was 37.5%, while 49.3% had a comorbid psychiatric disorder. Among all, 20.6% of the cases were using psychiatric medication.

Conclusion:

With our study, it was found that intellectual disability and autism spectrum disorders were the most common psychiatric diagnoses indicating the need for special education in children and adolescents and that majority of the cases were 0-6 years old. We believe data and results of this study shall, hopefully, contribute to determining statistical data regarding psychiatric disorders that would require special education for intervention as well as to carry out a better follow up and treatment plan for these cases.