Critical insights on: Mental health, psychosocial functioning and quality of life in adolescents with anorectal malformation

The study of Hameed et al. [1] titled, Mental health, psychosocial functioning and quality of life in adolescents with anorectal malformation, published in the Journal of Pediatric Surgery, explores the psychosocial impact of anorectal malformations (ARM) in adolescents through a clinically based psychiatric evaluation. The authors have done a remarkable job by using the Child Assessment Schedule (CAS) and patient-and parent-reported tools (YSR, CBCL, PedsQoL) for mental health assessment. In fact, this study is the first in nearly three decades to use CAS to assess mental health, as previous studies mostly relied on limited self-reported questionnaires.