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Objective: To examine psychosocial correlates, specifically pain intensity, pain interference, and quality of life (QOL), in patients with pediatric intracranial hypertension. We hypothesized that parents and children who report higher levels of pain intensity and interference would be associated with lower QOL.Methods: Eighty-three patients and their families seen in the pediatric intracranial hypertension clinic of a large pediatric hospital completed self-report and parent proxy measures on QOL, mood, and other psychosocial correlates. Bivariate correlations were conducted between parent proxy and self-reports and regression analyses between pain and psychosocial correlate variables were examined.Results: Parent proxy and child reports were highly correlated. Body mass index (BMI) was a significant predictor of parent proxy report of pain intensity with higher BMI associated with higher parent proxy ratings of pain intensity. Parents reported significantly higher levels of pain interference for their children compared to child report. Parent ratings of child depression symptoms, BMI, and age were significant predictors of pain interference. Higher BMI and depression symptoms and younger age were associated with more pain interference. Overall QOL was similar to other headache populations but lower than other chronic illness and healthy populations.Conclusions: Pediatric intracranial hypertension is associated with decreased QOL. Body mass index was a significant predictor of pain intensity and interference and should be monitored closely in clinic. Clinical care should include psychosocial screening to identify patients who would benefit from interventions to reduce the impact of this condition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To evaluate changes in access to and utilization of behavioral health (BH) services after the integration of psychologists into primary care clinics compared with clinics without integrated psychologists., Methods: We integrated 4 of 12 primary care clinics within our academic health system. We used the median wait time for BH services as a proxy for changes in access and defined BH utilization as the percentage of primary care visits that resulted in contact with a BH clinician within 180 days. We compared changes in access and utilization from the year before integration (September 2015 to September 2016) with the 2 years after integration (October 2016 to October 2018) within integrated clinics and between integrated and nonintegrated clinics. We used difference-in-difference analysis to test the association of study outcomes with the presence of integrated psychologists., Results: Access and utilization were similar across all practices before integration. After integration, BH utilization increased by 143% in integrated clinics compared with 12% in nonintegrated clinics. The utilization of BH services outside of the medical home (ie, specialty BH service) decreased for integrated clinics only. In clinics with integrated psychologists, 93% of initial BH visits happened on the same day as a need was identified. The median wait time for the 7% in integrated clinics who were not seen on the same day was 11.4 days (interquartile range = 5.3-17.7) compared with 48.3 days (interquartile range = 20.4-93.6) for nonintegrated clinics., Conclusions: A team-based integration model increased BH utilization and access., (Copyright © 2023 by the American Academy of Pediatrics.)