Children as young as TWO ‘ have mental health issues’

THOUSANDS of children as young as two are being diagnosed with mental health disorders, according to a landmark report.

One in 18 pre-schoolers are being treated for problems including ‘oppositional defiance disorder’, NHS mental health figures show.

While some traditional parents may scoff at such terms for conduct they would simply blame on ‘the terrible-twos’, experts insist the cases are at the extreme end of the behavioural spectrum. Controversial treatments include families going on parenting courses to help them handle their offspring.

Without intervention, the toddlers – predominantly boys – would be at risk of more serious mental health conditions as adults, from depression to schizophrenia, psychiatrists said.

But critics said it ‘over-medicalised’ young children who are still in the early stages of development. Tamsin Ford, professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of Exeter who was involved in the research, admitted diagnosing toddlers with mental health conditions was controversial.

But she said highlighting health issues was in the child’s long-term interest. For a child to be diagnosed, they must have demonstrated behavioural difficulties for at least six months, which are severe, persistent and impacting on family life.

She added: ‘We are not talking the terrible-twos here. There is a spectrum from the very placid to the very well behaved but this is the very sharp end of the tale and with these children, behaviour problems once they’ve set up do tend to persist.’ Today’s report on the mental health of children and young people in England is the first in more than a decade. The findings, based on a survey of 9,117 children, include those aged two to four and 17 to 19 for the first time.

It shows a worsening picture for young people’s welfare, with one in eight five- to 19-year-olds suffering a mental health disorder in 2017.

The rates of illness increased with age, affecting one in ten by the time they finished primary school, one in seven by 16 and one in six by age 20.

Teenage girls are particularly at risk, with almost a quarter diagnosed with a mental disorder, and a fifth with emotional problems resulting in half of those affected self-harming or attempting suicide.

But Julian Elliott, professor of education at Durham University, disagreed with the inclusion of very young children. ‘We are turning everything into a mental health problem,’ he said. ‘For many of these (oppositionally defiant) children they don’t have a mental disorder, it’s a question of conduct.’