Four in ten children who attend Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS) in Scotland go on to attend specialist psychiatric services as adults, according to new research from the University of Edinburgh.
This figure increases for teenagers, with half of those attending CAMHS as teens going on to access adult mental health services by their early 30s – far more than previous research has suggested.
The findings shed light on the often severe mental health burden experienced by children who come to CAMHS and highlight the need for a better understanding of the long-term impact of childhood treatments, experts say.
Researchers at the University of Edinburgh studied every child born in Scotland between 1991 and 1998 until 2023 – almost half a million people. They found that 8% attended CAMHS before the age of 18.
This small group went on to account for 46% of all adult psychiatric inpatient bed days and 41% of all NHS adult mental health outpatient appointments by the age of 32.
Former CAMHS patients account for large proportions of all severe mental illness diagnoses in adult psychiatric hospitals, including personality disorders (49%), eating disorders (50%), schizophrenia (39%) and opioid use disorders (39%).