The Clinical Application of Meditation for Children and Adolescents

Mental health problems in children and adolescents not only have a significant impact on learning and peer relationships, but if not treated early, often lead to mental health problems in adulthood. Mental health is therefore very important both from the perspective of an individual but also from a socioeconomic perspective. However, there is still a lack of understanding and interest in mental illness in Korea. In particular, not much is known about mental illness in children and adolescents, so it is rare for children to be admitted to the hospital before they show serious symptoms. Additionally, due to the nature of children at this stage of development, they are often reluctant to use psychotropic medication as they think that these drugs are intended to relieve symptoms rather than cure them. These children also often feel burdened by having to take medication for a long time and fear their side effects. Although in most cases this is the result of prejudice against drug treatment, there is still a lack of long-term research on the effects and side effects of medication on the development of children and adolescents. More research on this subject is therefore needed in the future. Additionally, in the case of mental illness during childhood and adolescence, patients often feel that psychological treatment is ineffective. In reality, psychotherapy alone has been shown to have limitations as there are many cases where its effects did not meet expectations.