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Absence from School and Mental Health

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Ian Berg
Ian Berg*
Affiliation:
Clarendon Wing, Leeds General Infirmary, Belmont Grove, Leeds LS2 9NS, and The University of Leeds
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Abstract

Severe school attendance problems, which once commanded a great deal of attention in child and adolescent psychiatry, have fallen from favour and are increasingly viewed as varieties of social impairment which may accompany disorders such as anxiety disturbances in the case of school refusal and conduct disturbances in the case of truancy. It is argued that this relegation of school attendance difficulties may have gone too far. As presenting complaints, albeit sometimes masked by apparent physical illness, they still have much to recommend them as indicators of a wide variety of present and future problems: educational, social, family, legal, medical, and, last but not least, psychiatric. Prevalence, features, causative factors, outcome, and management are discussed. Particular attention is paid to DSM and ICD classification. Gaps in present knowledge are indicated.

Type
Review Articles
Information
The British Journal of Psychiatry , Volume 161 , Issue 2 , August 1992 , pp. 154 - 166
Copyright
Copyright © 1992 The Royal College of Psychiatrists 

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