Inmaculada Peñuelas Calvo
Psychiatrist for children and adolescents at the 12 de Octubre University Hospital and associate professor in the Legal Medicine, Psychiatry and Pathology Department of the Faculty of Medicine of UCM
The quality of the study is good. It adequately followed the PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses) statement, which makes it possible to follow the procedure used by the authors in the study in a transparent manner. In addition, they have carried out a quality assessment of each of the studies following the nine-item Joanna Briggs Institute (JBI Checklist).
It is a very interesting study, as it includes work from more than 30 years ago (1988-2021), with more than 300,000 children and adolescents included. The results obtained have taken into account data from several countries and concluded that treatment rates are low.
It is important to note that this study has only combined the most prevalent mental disorders in this age group. In addition, some of the subgroups categorised for analysis include few studies and are very heterogeneous, so caution should be exercised in generalising these results.
This article confirms what child and adolescent mental health professionals have been saying for years: investment in child and adolescent mental health is insufficient. In my opinion, the increase in the need for psychological and psychiatric care for children and adolescents in recent years is very significant. It seems to me to be a problem of public interest that needs special attention.