Systematic reviews are studies in which the researcher attempts to access and review in a systematic way all of the relevant articles in the field and then provide a summary of their results.

Systematic reviews incorporate a clear description of the search strategy employed to identify the studies reviewed, and the criteria used to evaluate them.  Some systematic reviews also include a meta-analysis, which is a statistical analysis of their results.

The strength of the systematic review is its ability to combine data from studies of different populations in different settings to show if a treatment is widely applicable.  By pooling data from patients in a number of studies, thus increasing the sample size, a systematic review can increase the reliability of the findings, showing whether a treatment actually works or whether it may be useless or even harmful.

Many web sites exist whose stated purpose is to provide information on the problems of child and youth mental health.  Some of these sites also provide information on the results of various research studies that have been conducted.

The Centre of Knowledge on Healthy Child Development, however, is the only site dedicated to summarizing systematic reviews of all the research that is out there on child and youth mental health.   We do this because we want parents, practitioners, teachers and policy makers to have the best evidence on which to make choices around treatment, policies and services affecting the developmental health of children and youth.

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