Li L, Zhang XP, Zheng YA. Long-term psychiatric and neurodevelopmental profiles of children with global developmental delay. World J Psychiatry 2026; 16(4): 114859 [DOI: 10.5498/wjp.v16.i4.114859]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Ying-Ai Zheng, MD, Department of Pediatrics, Ninghai Maternal and Child Health Hospital, No. 365 Xinghai Middle Road, Yuelong Street, Ningbo 315600, Zhejiang Province, China. zhengyingai081@126.com
Research Domain of This Article
Psychiatry
Article-Type of This Article
Retrospective Cohort Study
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Apr 19, 2026 (publication date) through Mar 30, 2026
Times Cited of This Article
Times Cited (0)
Journal Information of This Article
Publication Name
World Journal of Psychiatry
ISSN
2220-3206
Publisher of This Article
Baishideng Publishing Group Inc, 7041 Koll Center Parkway, Suite 160, Pleasanton, CA 94566, USA
Share the Article
Li L, Zhang XP, Zheng YA. Long-term psychiatric and neurodevelopmental profiles of children with global developmental delay. World J Psychiatry 2026; 16(4): 114859 [DOI: 10.5498/wjp.v16.i4.114859]
World J Psychiatry. Apr 19, 2026; 16(4): 114859 Published online Apr 19, 2026. doi: 10.5498/wjp.v16.i4.114859
Long-term psychiatric and neurodevelopmental profiles of children with global developmental delay
Lin Li, Xue-Ping Zhang, Ying-Ai Zheng
Lin Li, Department of Rehabilitation, Children’s Hospital of Shanxi Province, Taiyuan 030013, Shanxi Province, China
Xue-Ping Zhang, Ying-Ai Zheng, Department of Pediatrics, Ninghai Maternal and Child Health Hospital, Ningbo 315600, Zhejiang Province, China
Co-first authors: Lin Li and Xue-Ping Zhang.
Author contributions: Li L and Zhang XP contributed equally to this work and are the first co-authors. Lin Li was responsible for study conception, design, data collection, and drafting of the manuscript; Zhang XP participated in data acquisition, statistical analysis, and interpretation of results; Zheng YA supervised the study, provided critical revisions of the manuscript for important intellectual content, and served as the corresponding author. All the authors have read and approved the final version of the manuscript and agree to be accountable for all aspects of the work.
Institutional review board statement: This study has been approved and reviewed by the Medical Ethics Committee of Shanxi Children’s Hospital, No. 2024-009.
Informed consent statement: All study participants, or their legal guardian, provided informed written consent prior to study enrollment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement-checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement-checklist of items.
Data sharing statement: There is no additional data available.
Corresponding author: Ying-Ai Zheng, MD, Department of Pediatrics, Ninghai Maternal and Child Health Hospital, No. 365 Xinghai Middle Road, Yuelong Street, Ningbo 315600, Zhejiang Province, China. zhengyingai081@126.com
Received: October 31, 2025 Revised: November 30, 2025 Accepted: January 8, 2026 Published online: April 19, 2026 Processing time: 149 Days and 19.5 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: Global developmental delay (GDD) affects up to 3% of children and is frequently complicated by psychiatric comorbidities, which may worsen long-term outcomes. In this 2-year retrospective cohort study of 100 children with GDD, 68% developed psychiatric disorders, most commonly attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorder, and anxiety. Children with multiple psychiatric comorbidities demonstrated significantly poorer developmental quotients compared to those without comorbidities. Early intervention, particularly in language and social domains, improved developmental outcomes. These findings highlight the importance of early psychiatric screening and integrated intervention strategies to optimize trajectories in children with GDD.
