We need to address the environmental and social risk factors by educating parents about the roles of home stressors, poor supervision, and high-risk exposure in child injuries and by adding our voice to the efforts to bring into effect engineering and legislative interventions. The concept of adjustment problems in chronic or severe illnesses is widely used in pediatrics. This concept, which remains insufficiently investigated, is a promising area of investigation for prospective and prevention studies. The pertinent literature on the effects of delusional parents on children, families, and professionals is reviewed. By way of 3 case vignettes, the dilemmas are identified and discussed.
Delusional disorders are underdiagnosed, resulting in poor anticipation of their implications.
These cases are complex, often requiring multisystemic involvement to reduce the risks of flight, violence, psychosis, posttraumatic stress disorder, and other psychiatric sequelae to children and other family members. Seventeen studies, meeting specific selection criteria, were included in the metaanalyses. Risks for mental disorders among children were estimated by aggregating raw data from the selected studies. Results indicate that in comparison with children of parents with no mental disorders, children of parents with bipolar disorder are 2.7 times more likely to develop any mental disorder and 4.0 times more likely to develop an affective disorder. The metaanalyses indicate that during childhood and adolescence, the risks for any mental disorder and for affective disorders in children are consistently but moderately related to having a parent who suffers from bipolar disorder.