SynthesisJournal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines2025
Research Review: The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of children and young people with pre-existing mental health and neurodevelopmental conditions - a systematic review and meta-analysis of longitudinal studies.
Synthesis in Journal of child psychology and psychiatry, and allied disciplines, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 7 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
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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
7 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Ethnic and socioeconomic inequalities in the mental health of children and young people with pre-existing mental health and neurodevelopmental conditions during the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic review of longitudinal studies.European child & adolescent psychiatry · 2026Pooled it
- Article
- Caregiver-reported profiles of child functioning for children with developmental delays and disabilities 20 months after the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.Frontiers in child and adolescent psychiatry · 2026Article
- Design and implementation ofFrontiers in psychology · 2026Review
- Youth's mental health journeys through the COVID-19 pandemic using arts-based methods in virtual environments.PloS one · 2026Article
- Article
- Impact of Remote Appointments on the Outcomes of Community Mental Health Nurses in Primary Care Since the Covid Pandemic: A Retrospective Observational Cohort Study.International journal of mental health nursing · 2025Observational
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
10 authors.
Funding
Abstract
backgroundSystematic reviews have suggested mixed effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health of children and young people. However, most included studies focused on the general population and were cross-sectional. The long-term impact on those with pre-existing mental health and/or neurodevelopmental conditions remains unclear. Thus, we conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis to examine the longitudinal impact of the pandemic on the mental health of this clinical population and potential explanatory factors.
methodsOvid Medline, Embase, APA PsycInfo and Global Health databases were searched between 1 January 2020 and 3 August 2023 (PROSPERO CRD42022383546). We included longitudinal studies that compared mental health symptoms between pre- and during pandemic and/or during pandemic timepoints in children and young people (≤18 years old) with pre-existing mental and/or neurodevelopmental conditions. Outcomes included internalising, externalising and other symptoms. Risk of bias was rated using an adapted tool. Included studies were narratively synthesised and multi-level meta-analyses were conducted where the number of studies was sufficient.
resultsWe identified 21 studies (N = 2,617) from 6,083 records. Studies differed across countries, diagnoses, measures, informants and timepoints. All had overall moderate-to-high risk of bias. Narrative synthesis found mixed evidence of symptom change, with individual studies showing increase/reduction/no change. Factors such as diagnosis, baseline symptom severity, age and sex/gender may explain variation in outcomes. Multi-level meta-analyses were feasible for a limited number of outcomes and found no significant changes in internalising and externalising symptoms pre- versus during pandemic or internalising symptoms between 2020 pandemic phases, and high heterogeneity was noted.
conclusionsThe impact of the pandemic on the mental health of children and young people with pre-existing conditions varied according to individual and contextual vulnerabilities, which were not fully captured in pooled analyses. Further research needs to investigate longer-term impacts and better stratify this vulnerable population.
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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.