Does the treatment of mental disorders in childhood lead to a healthier adulthood?

Abstract

Purpose of review: To review mechanisms by which intervention for childhood mental disorders may exert an influence on mental health and wellbeing in adulthood, the challenges to demonstrating long-term benefit or harm from such intervention, existing evidence of long-term benefit, and strategies for improving the long-term benefit of treatment.

Recent findings: Intervention may improve long-term outcome through the promotion of protective interpersonal relationships, by enhancing scholastic and later occupational functioning, by arresting the progression of disorder, and by improving general health. Challenges to demonstrating benefits or harms in the long term include variability in the natural course of childhood mental disorders, heterotypic outcomes, and the influence of other variables over time on long-term functioning. Examples of demonstrated benefit include the lowering of risk for substance abuse seen with psychostimulant treatment for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, improved outcomes for autism since the introduction of early interventions to address language impairment, and reduced mortality in anorexia nervosa.

Summary: There are feasible enduring benefits of treatment for childhood mental disorders. Treatment of complex problems may have a greater long-term impact than in conditions that follow a benign natural course. Success requires more assertive approaches to treatment than are traditionally employed by child and adolescent mental health services.