Over-diagnoses could negatively affect young children: expert

A rush to diagnose children with neurological disorders could be one of the key reasons for worsening mental health outcomes in young people according to the country’s top medical experts.

A rush to diagnose very young children with neurological disorders could be one of the key issues exacerbating worsening mental health outcomes in young people, according to some of the country’s top mental health experts.

The Daily Telegraph spoke to three of Australia’s top paediatricians and mental health researchers to determine the cause behind our kids’ worsening mental health and why youth suicide rates had increased over the last fourteen years.

According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare the number of suicides increased for all ages under 24 from 2009 to 2023. Additionally one in seven children between four and 17 have experienced a mental illness.

A complex web of reasons emerged, from more uncertainty at home in a cost of living and housing crisis, the emergence of social media and a mental health system stretched to its limit, unable to properly cater for the needs of children.

Centre for Community Child Health at the Royal Children’s hospital foundation director, Professor Frank Oberklaid, said while there were many reasons children could suffer from depression and anxiety, one emerging issue was the propensity for a rush to diagnose young children with disorders.

A rush to diagnose young people with neurological disorders could be exacerbating the mental health crisis according to one of the country’s leading paediatricians. Photo: iStock

He said while young children often need treatment for certain disorders such as anxiety or ADHD, an early diagnosis could fail to take into account behavioural development, while at the same time labelling the child.

“Our approach to adult mental health problems is to diagnose and treat,” he said

“But kids are growing up in a dynamic environment, their development changes, their behaviour changes, so to diagnose the child with a disorder at the age of four or eight doesn’t take into account that often these issues are transient.

“All two-year-olds have behaviour problems - it’s part of development, that doesn’t mean you call it a conduct disorder.”

Professor Oberklaid said while in some severe cases an early diagnosis for a young child could be helpful, it was also a “label” that could stick to the child as they develop.

“Often the diagnoses can be self-fulfilling - there’s something wrong with me because I have an anxiety disorder,” he said.

“It tends to stay with kids. It tends to stop people from looking for ways of helping because this child has a disorder.

“What we want to be doing is identifying those children that are struggling, and whatever the reason is, build support around them.”

Paediatrician Professor Frank Oberklaid said while in some severe cases an early diagnosis for a young child could be helpful, it was also a “label” that could stick to the child as they develop.

Director of the Royal Children’s Hospital Health Services research unit, Dr Harriet Hiscock, agreed that while a diagnosis is helpful to some children to understand why they feel the way they do, it can distress some children.

Yet she felt one of the key reasons behind an increase in mental health issues was uncertainty in children’s lives, caused often by stressors on the parents.

“If you have a kid who is continually moving house because of rental issues or where the parents are unemployed, and getting to school or going to school camp becomes a problem. I’ve often seen this contribute to anxiety and depression.”

Susanne Schweizer, Associate Professor at the UNSW School of Psychology, said increasing uncertainty in children’s lives was an issue. Picture Linkedin

UNSW youth mental health expert, Associate professor Susanne Schweizer said research backed up the notion that increasing uncertainty in children’s lives was an issue.

“Particularly older adolescents are most sensitive to social uncertainty. Young people who are particularly sensitive to social evaluation and rejection are at greater risk of anxiety and depression and social media has increased the opportunities for this social evaluation,” she said.

“Other areas where we see this manifesting are in school pressures, academic pressures and pressures to perform.”

Originally published as Over-diagnoses could negatively affect young children: expert