Many teens who suffer a traumatic injury will subsequently develop mental health problems, but few will see a doctor or other health care professional who can identify these problems, according to a new study.

The findings show trauma center personnel, primary care doctors and school health care professionals must be more aware of the potential for emotional distress after injury, Janice A. Sabin of the University of Washington in Seattle told Reuters Health, and communication must be improved between health care providers to identify at-risk kids.

And parents, Sabin added, can help. If a child shows evidence of emotional distress after injury - anxiety, poor sleep, signs of depression - “a parent can initiate a call to the family doctor or find a family doctor or care provider or call a school counselor,” Sabin said. “Just making that call to the school counselor could be very helpful to the kid.”

Sabin and her team looked at 105 adolescents who had been admitted to a level 1 trauma center for treatment. Four to six months after their injury, 30 percent of adolescents had high levels of posttraumatic stress symptoms, 11 percent had high levels of depressive symptoms, and 17 percent reported high levels of alcohol use, according to a report in the medical journal Pediatrics.

Just 40 percent of the injured teens had a source of regular medical care, and only about 25 percent visited a primary care doctor in the six months after their injury. Even then, none of the physicians identified new emotional or drinking problems in these post-injury visits.

There are two possible places were kids could be screened post-injury for any emotional problems, Sabin noted; at school, or at the acute or surgical care follow-up visit after surgery.

The researcher pointed out that 85 percent of schools in her study had a health care provider on site, while 72 percent have on-site mental health services. “That seems like a really interesting place where awareness could be increased.”

Usually, she added, post-injury emotional problems will improve with time. But brief professional interventions early on - for example, a few sessions with a counselor - Sabin said, can be very helpful for kids with high levels of distress. “There’s a variety of ways to give kids emotional support.”

SOURCE: Pediatrics, January 2006.