School phobia

From MEpedia, a crowd-sourced encyclopedia of ME and CFS science and history

School phobia or school avoidance or school refusal is a proposed mental illness. School phobia is vaguely defined and its validity has been challenged.[1][2]

Signs and symptoms[edit | edit source]

No diagnostic criteria have been established, but the following are generally described:

  • A child or adolescent fails to attend school, or very rarely attends

Sometimes the following criteria are also used, or may be assumed to be present:

  • Lack of attendance cannot be explained (or is not fully explained) by illness
  • The child or adolescent is afraid to attend school or intentionally tries to avoid attending[2][3][4]

Treatment[edit | edit source]

ME/CFS[edit | edit source]

Dr Rosemary Underhill stated tjat children with ME/CFS may be wrongly considered to have a mental or behavioral disorder if they are too ill to attend school regularly:

"ME/CFS has often been misdiagnosed, as School Avoidance Behavior, or as Munchausen's syndrome by proxy (a condition in which, a parent fabricates their child's illness)."[5]

ME/CFS has been found to cause significant absence from school, and studying at home can be seriously affected by cognitive dysfunction including difficulty learning new things, memory problems and poor concentration.[6][7]

Misdiagnosis as school phobia[edit | edit source]

Tyrrell (2005) describes a particularly common combination of childhood ME/CFS symptoms as school phobia, stating:

"Hiding behind such common physical symptoms as headaches, stomachaches, and fatigue, school phobia evades diagnosis with ease."[1]

Notable studies[edit | edit source]

  • 2020, Severe ME in Children[8] - (Full text)
  • 2007, Special problems of children with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome and the enteroviral link[3] - (Full text)
  • 2007, Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in Children and Adolescents[5] - (Full text)
  • 2003, Learning and memorization impairment in childhood chronic fatigue syndrome manifesting as school phobia in Japan[4] - (Full Text)
  • 1995, The myth and the legend of school phobia[2] - (Abstract)

See also[edit | edit source]

Learn more[edit | edit source]

References[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Tyrrell, Maureen (June 2005). "School phobia". The Journal of School Nursing: The Official Publication of the National Association of School Nurses. 21 (3): 147–151. doi:10.1177/10598405050210030401. ISSN 1059-8405. PMID 15898849.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Kearney, Christopher A.; Eisen, Andrew R.; Silverman, Wendy K. (1995). "The legend and myth of school phobia". School Psychology Quarterly. 10 (1): 65–85. doi:10.1037/h0088293. ISSN 1939-1560.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Colby, J (February 2007). "Special problems of children with myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome and the enteroviral link". Journal of Clinical Pathology. 60 (2): 125–128. doi:10.1136/jcp.2006.042606. ISSN 0021-9746. PMC 1860612. PMID 16935964.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Miike, Teruhisa; Tomoda, Akemi; Jhodoi, Takako; Iwatani, Noritaka (October 1, 2004). "Learning and memorization impairment in childhood chronic fatigue syndrome manifesting as school phobia in Japan". Brain and Development. 26 (7): 442–447. doi:10.1016/j.braindev.2003.10.004. ISSN 0387-7604. PMID 15351079.
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Underhill, Rosemary (2007). "Chronic Fatigue Syndrome in Children and Adolescents" (PDF). New Jersey Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Association, Inc.
  6. ↑ Rowe, Peter C.; Underhill, Rosemary A.; Friedman, Kenneth J.; Gurwitt, Alan; Medow, Marvin S.; Schwartz, Malcolm S.; Speight, Nigel; Stewart, Julian M.; Vallings, Rosamund; Rowe, Katherine S. (2017). "Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Diagnosis and Management in Young People: A Primer". Frontiers in Pediatrics. 5 (121). doi:10.3389/fped.2017.00121.
  7. ↑ Carruthers, BM; van de Sande, MI; De Meirleir, KL; Klimas, NG; Broderick, G; Mitchell, T; Staines, D; Powles, ACP; Speight, N; Vallings, R; Bateman, L; Bell, DS; Carlo-Stella, N; Chia, J; Darragh, A; Gerken, A; Jo, D; Lewis, DP; Light, AR; Light, KC; Marshall-Gradisnik, S; McLaren-Howard, J; Mena, I; Miwa, K; Murovska, M; Stevens, SR (2012), Myalgic encephalomyelitis: Adult & Paediatric: International Consensus Primer for Medical Practitioners (PDF), ISBN 978-0-9739335-3-6
  8. ↑ Speight, Nigel (2020). "Severe ME in Children". Healthcare. 8 (3): 211. doi:10.3390/healthcare8030211.
Retrieved from "https://me-pedia.org/w/index.php?title=School_phobia&oldid=240286"