Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- List of tables and boxes
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Assessment and treatment: general principles
- 3 Making a summary and action plan
- 4 Development and developmental problems
- 5 Intellectual disability
- 6 Habit disorders
- 7 Emotional problems
- 8 Behaviour and related problems
- 9 Specific problems in adolescence
- 10 Alcohol and drug dependency
- 11 Psychotic disorders
- 12 Chronic physical illness and disability
- 13 Physical illness without an identifiable physical explanation
- 14 Stressful situations
- 15 Parents and the needs of children
- 16 Mental health promotion
- 17 Medication
- References and suggested reading
- Appendix 1 My star chart
- Appendix 2 Guide to medication for use in childhood mental disorders
- Index
12 - Chronic physical illness and disability
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Preface
- Acknowledgements
- Abbreviations
- List of tables and boxes
- 1 Introduction
- 2 Assessment and treatment: general principles
- 3 Making a summary and action plan
- 4 Development and developmental problems
- 5 Intellectual disability
- 6 Habit disorders
- 7 Emotional problems
- 8 Behaviour and related problems
- 9 Specific problems in adolescence
- 10 Alcohol and drug dependency
- 11 Psychotic disorders
- 12 Chronic physical illness and disability
- 13 Physical illness without an identifiable physical explanation
- 14 Stressful situations
- 15 Parents and the needs of children
- 16 Mental health promotion
- 17 Medication
- References and suggested reading
- Appendix 1 My star chart
- Appendix 2 Guide to medication for use in childhood mental disorders
- Index
Summary
Mental health problems in children and adolescents may be linked to physical illnesses, including diabetes mellitus, asthma, eczema, congenital heart disease and HIV infection. However, there is a closer link between mental health problems and disorders affecting the brain, such as epilepsy and cerebral palsy, than there is with other physical conditions.
Physical illness and mental health
Case
Lakshmi is a 9-year-old girl well known to the local primary healthcare professional because she has chronic asthma. The health professional has learned over the past 3 years since the diagnosis of asthma was made that understanding Lakshmi's mental health and the social conditions in which she lives has been really important in keeping her alive and able to go to school. Some of Lakshmi's asthma attacks come on when she has a cold or the flu or when she has been exposed to pollen in the spring. Some of her worst attacks are triggered by excitement and disappointment. Helping her parents to prevent Lakshmi getting too excited at the time of festivals and present-giving has reduced her attacks. A year ago, Lakshmi started to refuse to go to school because she was worried about having an attack there. The health professional was able to talk to the teachers to explain what should be done if Lakshmi had an attack in school and this reassured the teachers so that she was able to attend regularly. Lakshmi's family lives in an overcrowded shack in a poor part of the city. There is nothing that the health professional can do about the living conditions, but she was able to help her mother and father to stop smoking so that the air at home was less polluted and there was more money to spend on food. Now Lakshmi has started to be very disobedient and does not want to take the medication that seems to prevent the attacks. The health professional will have to try to understand this nonadherence with treatment and also help Lakshmi understand why it is important for her to take her medication regularly if it is to help.
Of course not all children who attend primary care clinics have such a rich set of links between their physical illness and their mental health and social circumstances as described in the case above, but many children have at least one of these features.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Where There is No Child PsychiatristA Mental Healthcare Manual, pp. 112 - 135Publisher: Royal College of PsychiatristsFirst published in: 2017