Symptom development among children and adolescents with mental health issues who seeks psychiatric care in Kronoberg : A cross-sectional study

In national surveys of mental illness in Sweden in the group of children and adolescents, an increase in prevalence has been observed. To our knowledge there are no regional surveys in the area. The purpose of the present study was to map symptom distribution among applicants to a child and adolescent psychiatric clinic in Sweden and to map how mental illness is distributed on the basis of demographic variables in order to contribute to increased knowledge of mental illness among children and adolescents in Sweden. In this study data from conducted interviews from year 2010 - 2017 in a child and adolescent clinic was analyzed. The results showed a significant difference among the number of applicants between the first and last measurement of the measurement period, year 2010 and 2017, for adhd and anxiety-like symptoms. Regarding depressive symptoms, no significant difference was found. The most frequent symptom group was depressive symptoms. The results also showed differences due to the socio- economic group in which socio-economically weak areas had a larger share of applicants. The conclusion was that the national increase also occurs at regional level and that the spread of mental illness confirms previous research that socio-economic family factors affect the behavior of children and adolescents. Further research on etiology can supplement this study in order to work preventively with children and adolescents with mental illness