Medscape: Complex Medical Conditions Drive Children's Mental Health Problems

By Heidi Splete

The odds of a mental health diagnosis in children with chronic medical conditions increased stepwise based on the severity of their illness, according to data from nearly 3 million children presented at the Pediatric Hospital Medicine (PHM) 2025 in Anaheim, California.

Mental health diagnoses are known to complicate outcomes of underlying medical conditions in children, but the prevalence of mental health diagnoses across multiple complex, chronic conditions and the factors associated with them have not been well studied, wrote Maria Newmaster, MD, of Children’s Mercy Hospital, Kansas City, Missouri, and colleagues.

“Understanding mental health trends across the array of medical complexity and chronicity in pediatrics is important for informing intervention efforts, which may ultimately aid with disease trajectory and healthcare use and spending,” Newmaster said in an interview.

Read the full article via Medscape

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