Mental Health in Children with Cerebral Palsy: Does Screening Capture the Complexity?

Table 4

Mental health screening compared to having a psychiatric disorder (according to DSM-IV criteria assessed by Kiddie-SADS) for children with cerebral palsy at school starting age.

SDQ-symptoms versus psychiatric disorders	Above 90th percentile on SDQ^a  N (%)	Psychiatric disorder present  N (%)	Sensitivity	Specificity	PPV	NPV
Emotional symptoms versus emotional disorders^b	14 (29.8)	5 (10.6)	1.00	0.79	0.36	1.00
Conduct problems versus conduct disorder/ODD^c	16 (34.8)	4 (8.5)	0.50	0.67	0.13	0.93
Hyperactivity problems versus ADHD/ADD^b	6 (12.8)	24 (51.1)	0.13	0.87	0.50	0.49
Total Difficulties Score versus any psychiatric disorder^c	31 (67.4)	26 (56.5)	0.85	0.55	0.71	0.73
Peer problems versus any psychiatric disorder	41 (89.1)	26 (56.5)	1.0	0.25	0.63	1.0
Impact score versus any psychiatric disorder	27 (57.4)	27 (57.4)	0.74	0.65	0.74	0.65

PPV: positive predictive value; NPV: negative predictive value; ^aSDQ: strengths and difficulties questionnaire ^b𝑁=47; ^c𝑁=46.