Counselling and psychological therapy for children with long-term medical conditions (LTCs)
A narrative review of the literature

This narrative report summarises the current literature on psychological therapy for children with long-term medical conditions.

It focuses on papers looking at:

• multiple long-term conditions
• asthma
• diabetes
•  myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME) and chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS)

These conditions were found to have the most extensive and highest quality evidence bases.

The interventions explored are highly variable and were often condition specific. Their main focus is treatment adherence.

Overall, while there is evidence of the effectiveness of a wide range of interventions, no specific intervention emerges as most effective and none are effective across all outcome measures. The review attempts to draw conclusions across all conditions.