RESUMO
Child psychiatric disorders are common and treatable, but often go undetected and therefore remain untreated.To assess the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) as a potential means for improving the detection of child psychiatric disorders in the community.SDQ predictions and independent psychiatric diagnoses were compared in a community sample of 1959 11- to 17-year-olds from the 2013 Mongolian National Center for Mental HealthMulti-informant (parents, teachers, older children) SDQs identified individuals with a psychiatric diagnosis with a specificity of 66.8% (95% Cl 61.4-73.0%) and a sensitivity of 64.4% (59.9-71.3%). The questionnaires identified over 65% of individuals with conduct, hyperactivity, depressive and some anxiety disorders. Sensitivity was substantially poorer with single-informant rather than multi-informant SDQs.Community screening programmers based on multi-informant SDQs could potentially increase the detection of child psychiatric disorders, thereby improving access to effective treatments