Johansson Kostenniemi U, Bazan A, Karlsson L, et al. - Although bacterial meningitis is known to cause hearing impairments and neurologic deficits, less is known about psychiatric disabilities, so researchers sought to evaluate psychiatric disabilities and other long-term consequences of childhood bacterial meningitis. Of the 80 children included in this study, 56% of them had permanent disabilities that were not due to preexisting conditions during the mean observation period of 19 years and 2 months. In 30% of them, psychiatric disease was diagnosed, while another 5% were being evaluated for symptoms of psychiatric disease. Psychiatric disabilities were detected after a mean time period of 14 years, while other disabilities were often detected within the first year. Late discovery and predictive problems call for a review of the existing guidelines to incorporate a specific long-term approach for the diagnosis of psychiatric disabilities.