ReviewBJPsych bulletin2023
Do no harm: can school mental health interventions cause iatrogenic harm?
Review in BJPsych bulletin, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. An erratum has been issued. Cited by 44 papers, 3 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
44 citing papers in PubMed, 3 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Review: Adolescents' perspectives on and experiences with post-primary school-based suicide prevention as end-users, co-creators and peer helpers - a systematic review meta-ethnography.Child and adolescent mental health · 2026Pooled it
- Social inequalities in the effects of school-based well-being interventions: a systematic review.European journal of public health · 2025Pooled it
- Help-seeking processes related to targeted school-based mental health services: systematic review.BMC public health · 2024Pooled it
- School Health Promotion Through UNESCO's Four Pillars of Education and NICE Participation Frameworks: A Systematic Review.Journal of prevention (2022) · 2026Review
- A narrative review of school-based preventive interventions on mental disorders and addictions.Discover mental health · 2026Review
- Effectiveness of universal secondary school-based interventions addressing the psychological risk factors of eating disorders in adolescents: a systematic review.Journal of eating disorders · 2026Review
- Implementation dosage and depressive symptoms following school-based mindfulness and relaxation: Complier Average Causal Effect estimation in the INSPIRE cluster randomised trial.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2026Article
- Adolescents' trajectories of mental health in the MYRIAD trial.JCPP advances · 2026Article
- Annual Research Review: Improving school climate to improve child and adolescent mental health and reduce inequalities.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2026Review
- Genetic sensitivity to the environment moderates the impact of positive and negative childhood experiences on psychological adjustment "for good and for bad".European psychiatry : the journal of the Association of European Psychiatrists · 2026Article
- Editorial Perspective: How spreading mental health information can be (un-) helpful - a dynamic systems approach.Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines · 2026Article
- Article
- Potential harm from universal school-based mental health interventions: Candidate mechanisms and future directions.Current opinion in psychology · 2026Review
- Effectiveness of a School-Based Drug Prevention Program: Tú Decides 2.0.Journal of prevention (2022) · 2026Article
- Developmental literacy and epistemic dignity as primary child protection: a developmentally staged, disability-inclusive public-health framework for preventing adverse childhood experiences.Frontiers in public health · 2026Article
- Compassionate mind training as school-based social and emotional learning: extension to younger pupils and effects of programme dosage.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- The fine line between the cure and the illness: the risks of prescriptive emotionality and sociality for youth mental health.Lancet regional health. Americas · 2026Review
- Optimising the implementation of a universal web-based mental health service for Australian secondary schools: a cluster randomised controlled trial.Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health · 2025Article
- Evaluation of an online training course for educational professionals on depression and mental health in childhood and adolescence.Child and adolescent psychiatry and mental health · 2025Article
- A scoping review of school-based psychological interventions for adolescent mental health in secondary education: addressing anxiety, depression, and well-being.Discover mental health · 2025Review
Corrections and comments
- Erratum issued
Authors and funding
2 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
In recent years, there have been extensive efforts in secondary schools to prevent, treat and raise awareness of adolescent mental health problems. For some adolescents, these efforts are essential and will lead to a reduction in clinical symptoms. However, it is also vital to assess whether, for others, the current approach might be causing iatrogenic harm. A growing body of quantitative research indicates that some aspects of school-based mental health interventions increase distress or clinical symptoms, relative to control activities, and qualitative work indicates that this may be partly due to the interventions themselves.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.