Psychopathological warning signs and mental disorders in supposedly healthy schoolchildren. January – December, 2021

Abstract

Introduction: Mental disorders have enormous repercussions on the emotional and intellectual development of children. Attention to their mental health must be inspired by a hopeful vision because they are our future.

Objective: To determine the discriminative power of the psychopathological warning signs instrument for the screening of mental disorders.

Method: A prevalence study was carried out in clinics from 18 to 22 and 28, of Pedro del Toro Polyclinic, January-December 2021. Universe: 95 healthy children between seven and ten years old and health professionals. The sample consisted of 35 schoolchildren, who met inclusion and exclusion criteria with non-probabilistic sampling. Questionnaires were used to collect information; the data were processed with descriptive statisticians.

Results: Nine-year-old children prevailed in 40 %; children with mental disorders, in 51.42 %; children with sleep disorders and mental disorder, in 61.9 %; the sensitivity was 0.72 and the specificity was 0.62. Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder as an entity was diagnosed in 33.3%.

Conclusions: The age of nine years predominated, with no differences between sexes. The psychopathological alarm signal that occurred most frequently was sleep disturbances. The diagnostic entity that predominated was attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The discriminative power of the instrument of psychopathological alarm signals for screening  mental disorders, in supposedly healthy schoolchildren, was demonstrated, due to the high probability that the child has alarm signals and actually suffers from a mental disorder.

Keywords: school children, mental disorders, warning signs, primary healthcare