Number of Children with Mental Disabilities Increases

An Increasing number of children are diagnosed with mental health disabilities in the United States, a new research shows.

According to a research published in the journal Pediatrics, there has been an increase of around 21 percent of neurodevelopmental or mental health cases among children. However, physical disabilities in children saw a decline of 12 percent.

The research showed that in 2011 at least 6 million children in the U.S. were living with a disability.

Lead study author Amy Hourtrow, MD, PhD, MPH, from the Departments of Physical Medicine and Pediatrics at the University of Pittsburgh in Pennsylvania, stated that their research showed children living in poverty had the highest disability rates at 102.6 cases per 1,000 people.

However, children of parents with highest income (incomes greater than 400 percent above the federal poverty level) had highest disability rates at 28.4 percent over a decade. Those living in households less than the federal poverty level saw only a 10.7 percent increase in the rate of disability.

It is still unclear what the responsible factors for such increase are. But, Houtrow explained that fewer stigmas associated with mental health conditions and more parental awareness regarding their child's condition might have influenced responses.

Moreover, the findings also noted that an increased awareness of autism has likely contributed to the increase.

"Decades ago, a child might have had substantial cognitive disabilities and abnormal behaviors that didn't get diagnosed as something specific, and now that we're understanding the neurobiology around autism, more children are being classified that way," she said, reports Medscape.