Dolp, Reinhard, Wardle, David Pr, Khalid-Khan, Sarosh · International journal of adolescent medicine and health · 2023 · DOI
This review looked at how psychiatry (the medical specialty focused on mental health) is involved in diagnosing and treating ME/CFS in children and teenagers. The researchers searched medical literature and found that psychiatrists are rarely part of the care team for young people with ME/CFS, and when they are involved, their role is often unclear or limited to treating separate mental health problems. The study suggests that psychiatry could potentially play a more defined and helpful role in caring for children and adolescents with ME/CFS.
This review highlights a significant gap in pediatric ME/CFS care: psychiatrists are underutilized despite the disease's substantial impact on psychological development and mental health. Understanding how psychiatry could better contribute to diagnosis and treatment may improve overall care quality and reduce the risk of misdiagnosis or inadequate support for young patients.
This scoping review does not establish whether psychiatric involvement would improve patient outcomes, nor does it determine whether psychiatric symptoms in ME/CFS are primarily causal, consequential, or comorbid. The study identifies an organizational gap in clinical practice but does not prove that expanded psychiatric involvement would be beneficial.
About the PEM badge: “PEM required” means post-exertional malaise was an explicit required diagnostic criterion for participant inclusion in this study — not that PEM was studied, observed, or discussed. Studies using criteria that do not require PEM (e.g. Fukuda, Oxford) are tagged “PEM not required”. How the atlas works →
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