The natural history of childhood psychiatric disorders: differential spontaneous remission rates in a psychiatric outpatient clinic for children in Israel; a pilot study

A group of 120 children, who had been on a waiting list of a children's psychiatric out patient clinic, was analyzed with regard to spontaneous remission. Letters were sent out to the parents and referring physicians of all 120 children, but follow up information was only obtained on 50 of these. An analysis of remission rates was done on these 'responders' as a function of individual diagnostic categories, as well as age ethnicity, sex, time on the waiting list and family size. A similar but separate analysis was also done on the group of 70 'non responders' which indicated that it possessed demographic characteristics similar to the group which spontaneously remitted. It was noted, however, that conclusions with regard to spontaneous remission rates in this group would be hazardous without further follow up information. While the spontaneous remission rates reported were high and comparable to those for treated cases, the problems of outcome research were noted and it was suggested that the present study serve as a pilot study for future research.