Mental health problems are a significant cause of disability in children and adolescents.
The most common are anxiety, depression, eating disorders and somatic symptom disorder. All these disorders have a negative impact on the child/adolescent functioning and they may lead to more severe psychiatric illnesses. For these reasons, paediatricians should be able to identify the patients with high risk of psychological dysfunction, by knowing the right questions to ask and using some simple psychological assessment tools (Paediatric symptom checklist, Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, HEADS-ED)
that can help patients to receive the psychological/neuropsychiatric support they need as soon as possible.
