Department of Child and Family Psychiatry

Child & Family Psychiatry Department at KEMU is one of the few and oldest academic Child Psychiatry departments in Pakistan currently headed by Prof Dr Nazish Imran. It was established by Professor of Emeritus, Professor Khalida Tareen in 1975, and remained initially affiliated with Paediatric Department but later on developed into an independent Academic Department. The department has been constantly growing since then offering outpatient services, liaison services, services for learning disability, school liaison services, psychological, play, speech and art therapy. In line with the growing need for expansion of services Pakistan’s first dedicated Child Psychiatry inpatient unit was established in 2012. Multidisciplinary team include fellowship trainees, medical officers, clinical psychologists, play therapists and speech therapist are working diligently offering child and family assessment and management, child developmental clinic, ADHD & Autism clinic, Epilepsy clinic, Speech therapy clinic, Play therapy clinic, Clinic for adolescents and Family counselling and parental guidance clinic. In 2023, with the support of PAPANA predominantly, alongside KEMCAANA, department inaugurated therapy services for children with Autism and neurodevelopmental disorders too.
Year 2022 marks the start of CPSP accredited Child Psychiatry subspecialty fellowship, making it the first pioneer department in Punjab offering the fellowship. A strong core in research leads to multiple research publications in both national and international journals

Our Vision
The vision of the Department of Child & Family Psychiatry, King Edward Medical University is to become a leader in providing the highest values of excellence in child & adolescent mental health clinical care, community service, education, innovative research and patient advocacy.
Our Mission
We are striving to develop our department to provide the highest quality health care in the appropriate socio-cultural and religious context of Pakistan. Our mission is threefold:
• To provide compassionate, safe and effective care of children and adolescents with psychiatric and co-occurring disorders.
• To educate students, physicians, mental health professionals, and the general public about the importance of child mental health.
• To conduct innovative and relevant research into the understanding and treatment of children and adolescents with psychiatric disorders, and into the prevention of these conditions.

• Regular academic class.
• Teaching Ward rounds
• Case discussions
• Journal clubs
• Academic activities and workshops arranged regularly by national and international faculty.
• Mental Health Day, Autism Day, Child & Adolescent Mental Health Day celebrations.

• 4.72 Evaluation of Teacher’s Training to Improve Mental Health Literacy Concerning Anxiety and Depression in Adolescents Imran, Nazish; Sharif, Muhammad Imran;Waseem, Tooba;Javed, Afzal; Azeem, Muhammad Waqar et al. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Child & Family Psychiatry, Volume 62, Issue 10, S256

• Naveed S, Tahir SM, Imran N, Rafiq B, Ayub M, Haider II, Khan MM. Sociodemographic characteristics and patterns of suicide in Pakistan: an analysis of current trends. Community mental health journal. 2023 Jan 7:1-7.
• Azeem, M.W., Liu, H. ., Imran, N., Ng, B., Bazaid, K., Dalal, P.K., Issac, M. and Javed, A. (2022), WPA Working Group on Medical Students: current initiatives and future priorities. World Child & Family Psychiatry, 21: 328-330. https://doi.org/10.1002/wps.20980
• Ayub M, Rafiq B, Tahir SM, Imran N, Naveed S, Haider II. Assessing the quality of media reporting of suicide deaths in Pakistan against international guidelines. International journal of social Child & Family Psychiatry. 2022 Jun 22:00207640221106683.
• Imran N, Rahman A, Chaudhry N, Asif A. Effectiveness of a WHO school-based mental health intervention for school teachers in urban Pakistan: a randomized controlled trial. Child and Adolescent Child & Family Psychiatry and Mental Health. 2022 Dec;16(1):1-2. (Impact factor 2.7)
• Azeem MW, Liu HY, Imran N, Ng B, Bazaid K, Dalal PK, Issac M, Javed A. WPA Working Group on Medical Students: current initiatives and future priorities. World Child & Family Psychiatry. 2022 Jun;21(2):328.(Impact factor 49.54)
• Imran N, Naz F, Sharif MI, Liaqat S, Riaz M, Khawar A, Azeem MW. Multidimensional impacts of coronavirus pandemic in adolescents in Pakistan: A cross sectional research. PloS one. 2022 Jan 5;17(1):e0262325.(Impact factor 3.24)
• Imran N; Aamer I; Afza Hl; Hashmi A; Shabbir B; Asif A. Locked in: psychiatric impact on COVID-19 patients isolated in a tertiary care hospital in Lahore, Pakistan. East Mediterr Health J. 2021;27(x):xxx–xxx. https://doi.org/10.26719/emhj.21.062
• Imran N, Masood HMU, Ayub M, Gondal KM. Psychological impact of COVID-19 pandemic on postgraduate trainees: a cross-sectional survey [published online ahead of print, 2020 Aug 25]. Postgrad Med J. 2020;postgradmedj-2020-138364. doi:10.1136/postgradmedj-2020-138364

• Imran N, Haider II, Mustafa AB, Aamer I, Kamal Z, Rasool G, Azeem MW, Javed A. The hidden crisis: COVID-19 and impact on mental health of medical students in Pakistan. Middle East Current Child & Family Psychiatry. 2021 Dec;28(1):1-9.
• Imran N, Sharif MI, Iqtadar S, Javed A, Azeem MW. Parental Stress and Parenting during COVID-19 Pandemic in Pakistan. World Social Child & Family Psychiatry. 2021 Jan 1;3(1):30.
• Zeshan M, Basu S, George J, Riaz M, Malik S, Imran N. Endocrinopathies Due to Psychotropic Agents. Psychiatric Annals. 2021 Sep 1;51(9):410-5.
• Imran N, Liaqat S, Bodla ZH, Zeshan M, Naveed S. Impact of Adverse Childhood Experiences on the Mother-Infant Social-Emotional Well-Being in Low-and Middle-Income Countries. Psychiatric Annals. 2021 Jul 1;51(7):316-21.
• Khalil A, Gondal F, Imran N, Azeem MW. Self-Stigmatization in children receiving mental health treatment in Lahore, Pakistan. Asian journal of Child & Family Psychiatry. 2020 Jan 1;47:101839. -(Impact Factor Journal)
• Imran N, Ayub M, Haider II, Rafiq B, Tahir SM, Naveed S, et al. Homicide-Suicides in Pakistan: An analysis of Newspaper reports of two years. Pak J Med Sci. 2024;40(10):2196-2201. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.40.10.9812
• Pervaiz Z, Imran N. Anti-NMDAR Autoimmune Encephalitis in a Paediatric Patient with a Rare Clinical Presentation with Isolated Symptoms of Psychosis. JCPSP Case Rep 2024; 2:234-236.

• Imran N, Farooq Z, Imran A. Preparing for the future of healthcare: Digital health literacy among medical students in Lahore, Pakistan. Pakistan Journal of Medical Sciences. 2024;40(1).
• Imran N, Khalid B, Afzal Z, Azeem S, Fatima O, Haider II, Azeem MW, Javed A. Leadership in Undergraduate Medical Education: A Study of Pakistani Medical Students’ Perceptions, Attitudes, and Interest. Annals of King Edward Medical University. 2023 Sep 27;29(2):105-10.
• Imran N, Naveed S, Rafiq B, Tahir SM, Ayub M, Haider II. Pattern of Adolescent Suicides in Pakistan: A content analysis of Newspaper reports of two years. Pak J Med Sci. 2023;39(1):6-11. doi: https://doi.org/10.12669/pjms.39.1.6851

Dedicated early intervention services for Families having children with Neurodevelopmental disorders.
Given the huge number of children with Neurodevelopmental disorders, presenting to Mayo Hospital from all over Punjab, there was an urgent need for a range of services and therapeutic treatments to be made available, free of cost. These include the provision of information and advocacy, assessment, early intervention therapies, help and liaison at school, behavior support, individual support packages etc. In 2023, Child & Family Psychiatry unit at King Edward Medical University/ Mayo Hospital in collaboration with the Pakistani American Psychiatric Association of North America (PAPANA). Very few public sector hospitals in the country have therapy centers for Autism and related neurodevelopmental disorders and it is hoped that the center in Mayo and the team will put every effort into providing quality services and helping patients alongside excellent training and learning opportunities and academic presence in the institution.

Suicide Prevention Guidelines for children & Adolescents in Pakistan.
In February 2025, The Pakistan Psychiatric Research Centre (PPRC), in collaboration with the Child & Family Psychiatry Department at King Edward Medical University (KEMU), successfully launched the “Suicide Prevention Overview, Guidelines, and Recommendations among Children and Adolescents in Pakistan.” This milestone event brought together leading national and international experts to address the growing mental health crisis among youth.

Renovation of Child Psychiatry OPD and Indoor rooms to provide a child and adolescent-friendly environment.

• Comprehensive child & adolescent mental health assessment and treatment
• Psychological therapy services
• Speech and language therapy
• Family Therapy
• Inpatient assessment
• Multi disciplinary Autism and Neurodevelopmental therapy services