Do we need to re-think on subthreshold childhood psychiatric cases? A follow-up study

A remarkable number of children all over the world have psychiatric disorders, which cause severe impairments in functionality. In the development of future mental health planning, not only determining epidemiological data is sufficient, but also follow-up studies are needed. This study aimed to determine the course of subthreshold psychiatric disorders in three-year follow-up process, and whether there is a relationship between sociodemographic factors, parental attitudes and SDQ scores and the escalating escalation from SPD to psychopathology or the disappearance of SPD symptoms. This study included fifty-four children with age of 7-9 years. The Development and Well Being Assessment, structured diagnostic interview, was used to evaluate psychiatric disorders. Besides, parents were asked to fill out a socio-demographic form and the Parent Attitude Research Instrument. The mean age of children was 8.2 ± 0.8 years, and 59.3% of them were girls, and 40.7% of them were boys. At the beginning of the study, most common subthreshold psychiatric disorders were Specific Phobia with a prevalence of 3%, followed by Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder 2.2%. After three-year of the follow-up period, 37% of subthreshold cases progress into psychiatric disorders. Living in a city centre in a slum and psychiatric disorder history of the family were independent risk factors for developing psychopathology. Living in a village was an effective protective factor in the disappearance of Subthreshold Psychiatric Disorder symptoms. In this study, besides the factors that may be effective in the development of psychiatric disorders, the factors that may be effective in the disappearance of Subthreshold Psychiatric Disorder symptoms were examined.