Development of Psychopathy from Childhood

Serious conduct problems are a serious mental health and public policy concern. Such conduct problems are highly related to criminal behavior and are associated with a host of other social, emotional, and academic problems. In addition, serious conduct problems in childhood predict later impairments in the domains of mental health, legal, educational, social, occupational, and physical health. In the past two decades, a significant body of research has emerged refining how the key features associated with psychopathy may be expressed in children and adolescents. These researches have focused largely on the presence of callous-unemotional traits, which correspond closely to the affective dimension of psychopathy—core to the construct in adult samples. Several reviews have focused on important theoretical questions related to how best to identify psychopathy in children and adolescents but do not directly address their importance for understanding, classifying, and treating youths with severe conduct problems. So, in the forefront of these studies, I aimed to review the development of psychopathy from childhood. In this chapter, topics related to psychopathy, such as diagnosis and nosology, epidemiologic studies, etiologic factors, assessment, diagnostic interviews, comorbid disorders and longitudinal outcome, treatment modalities, and treatment outcome in samples of children and adolescents, were included

Development Period of Prefrontal Cortex

This chapter outlines the issues associated with the development of prefrontal cortex in children and adolescents, and describes the developmental profile of executive processes across childhood. The prefrontal cortex plays an essential role in various cognitive functions and little is known about how such neural mechanisms develop during childhood yet. To better understand this issue, we focus the literature on the development of the prefrontal cortex during early childhood, the changes in structural architecture, neural activity, and cognitive abilities. The prefrontal cortex undergoes maturation during childhood with a reduction of synaptic and neuronal density, a growth of dendrites, and an increase in white matter volume. With these neuroanatomical changes, neural networks construct appropriate for complex cognitive processing. The organization of prefrontal cortical circuitry may have been critical to the occurrence of human-specific executive and social-emotional functions, and developmental pathology in these same systems underlies many psychiatric disorders; therefore, if we understand these developmental process well, we could better analyze the development of psychiatric disorders

Precursors of Personality Disorders in Children and Adolescents

Personality disorders are common psychiatric disorders in community that cause substantial disruption of functionality. Current diagnostic systems do not include classification of personality disorders in children. However, in recent years there has been an increasing interest in investigation of personality traits and disorders at childhood and adolescence as a precursor of adult personality disorders. The aim of this article was to review the precursors of personality disorders at childhood and adolescenc

Psychiatric problems in children and adolescents with rheumatic heart disease and which factors affect them: A preliminary study

GİRİŞ: Romatizmal kalp hastalığı olan çocuk ve ergenlerde psikiyatrik belirtilerin yanı sıra yaşam kalitesini ve hangi faktörlerin bu psikiyatrik sorunlara katkıda bulunduğunu belirlemeyi amaçladık. GEREÇ ve YÖNTEM: Romatizmal kalp hastalığı olan toplam 25 çocuk ve ergen, ayrıca, 6-16 yaş arası 25 çocuk ve ergen kontrol grubu olarak dahil edildi. Okul Çağı Çocukları ç n Duygulanım Bozuklukları ve zofren Gör şme Ç zelges - imdi ve Yaşamboyu ekli (ÇD G- Y) t m çocuk ve ergenlerin ebeveynlerine uygulandı ve Çocuklarda Depresyon Envanteri, Spielberger Durumluluk ve S reklilik Kaygı Envanteri ve KINDLR Anketi Çocuk ve Ergenlerde Sağlığa lişkin Yaşam Kalitesinin Ölç lmesi için t m çocuk ve ergenlere uygulanmıştır. Anneleri değerlendirmek için, Beck Depresyon Envanteri, Beck Anksiyete Envanteri ve Beş Faktör Kişilik Envanteri kullanılmıştır. BULGULAR: Romatizmal kalp hastalığı olan çocuk ve ergenlerde anksiyete puanlarının ve anksiyete bozukluğu tanısının y ksek olduğunu bulduk (p <0.05). Annelerin kaygı puanları, depresyon puanları ve kişilik özellikleri KINDL alt ölçekleri ile ilişkili idi ve kişilik özelliklerinden nevrotiklik puanları da Çocuk Depresyon Ölçeği puanları ile ilişkili olarak bulundu. Ayrıca, psikiyatrik bozukluk varlığının, Beck anksiyete skorları ile tahmin edilebildiğini bulduk. SONUÇ: Sonuçlarımız, psikiyatrik değerlendirmenin, romatizmal kalp hastalığı olan çocukların ve ergenlerin ve ebeveynlerinin tedavisinde önemli olduğunu göstermektedir.INTRODUCTION: We aimed to evaluate the psychiatric symptoms in addition to quality of life in children and adolescents with rheumatic heart disease, and to determine which factors contribute to psychiatric problems of them. MATERIALS and METHODS: A total of 25 children and adolescents with rheumatic heart disease, additionally, 25 children and adolescents with typical developing controls aged 6–16 years old were included. Kiddie-Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia, (present and life time version – K-SADS-PL) was applied to parents of all of the children and adolescents, and Child Depression Inventory, The Spielberger State-Trait Anxiety Inventory for children KINDLR Questionnaire for Measuring Health-Related Quality of Life in Children and Adolescents were applied to all of the children and adolescents. Assessment for mothers, Beck Depression Inventory, Beck Anxiety Inventory and Five Factor Personality Inventory were used. RESULTS: We found higher anxiety scores and increased anxiety disorder diagnosis among children and adolescents with rheumatic heart disease (p<0.05). Mothers’ anxiety scores, depression scores, and personality traits are associated with KINDL subscales, and neuroticism scores are also associated with Child Depression Inventory scores. In addition, presence of psychiatric disorder was predicted by Beck anxiety scores. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that psychiatric evalution is important in the treatment of children and adolescents and their parents with rheumatic heart disease

Sluggish cognitive tempo symptoms cooccurring with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

Abstract Background In the current study, the main aim was investigating the sociodemographic features and sluggish cognitive tempo symptoms of children diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and followed at an attention deficit hyperactivity disorder-specific outpatient clinic. Results The data of 200 boys and 200 girls who were followed up at the attention deficit hyperactivity disorder outpatient clinic were retrospectively compared. The scores of Turgay’s Scale-Disruptive Behavior Disorders Screening and Rating Scale, the Sluggish Cognitive Tempo subscale of the Children Behavior Checklist, and Conners Rating Scales Revised-Parent and Teacher Forms were analyzed. Among the group with Sluggish Cognitive Tempo scores, the ratio of girls was higher and the mean age at which symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder were recognized and treatment was offered was significantly older than that of the children with <4 scores. Both internalizing and externalizing symptoms were more frequent among the attention deficit hyperactivity disorder children who had Sluggish Cognitive Tempo scores ≥4. Conclusions There is increasing evidence distinguishing sluggish cognitive tempo from attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and in this study, we would like to highlight the appearance and clinical manifestation of these disorders together. Further research, including Sluggish Cognitive Tempo children from the general population, is warranted to understand the characteristics that accompany and differentiate attention deficit hyperactivity disorder

BDNF gene expression association with suicide and psychiatric disorders in children and adolescents (Relationship between BDNF gene expression and suicide)

Objective: In the current study, it was aimed to investigate the relationship between BDNF gene expression and childhood suicide attempt, childhood traumatic experiences, and problem-solving skills in children and adolescents

The roles of CC2D1A and HTR1A gene expressions in autism spectrum disorders

Classical autism belongs to a group of heterogeneous disorders known as autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Autism is defined as a neurodevelopmental disorder, characterized by repetitive stereotypic behaviors or restricted interests, social withdrawal, and communication deficits. Numerous susceptibility genes and chromosomal abnormalities have been reported in association with autism but the etiology of this disorder is unknown in many cases. CC2D1A gene has been linked to mental retardation (MR) in a family with a large deletion before. Intellectual disability (ID) is a common feature of autistic cases. Therefore we aimed to investigate the expressions of CC2D1A and HTR1A genes with the diagnosis of autism in Turkey. Forty-four autistic patients (35 boys, 9 girls) and 27 controls were enrolled and obtained whole blood samples to isolate RNA samples from each participant. CC2D1A and HTR1A gene expressions were assessed by quantitative Real-Time PCR (qRT-PCR) in Genome and Stem Cell Center, Erciyes University. Both expressions of CC2D1A and HTR1A genes studied on ASD cases and controls were significantly different (p < 0.001). The expression of HTR1A was undetectable in the ASD samples. Comparison of ID and CC2D1A gene expression was also found statistically significant (p = 0.028). CC2D1A gene expression may be used as a candidate gene for ASD cases with ID. Further studies are needed to investigate the potential roles of these CC2D1A and HTR1A genes in their related pathways in ASD

Default mode network activity and neuropsychological profile in male children and adolescents with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and conduct disorder

It is known that patients with Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and Conduct disorder (CD) commonly shows greater symptom severity than those with ADHD alone and worse outcomes. This study researches whether Default mode network (DMN) is altered in adolescents with ADHD + CD, relative to ADHD alone and controls or not. Ten medication-na < ve boys with ADHD + CD, ten medication-na < ve boys with ADHD and 10-age-matched typically developing (TD) controls underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans in the resting state and neuropsychological tasks such as the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test (WCST), Stroop Test TBAG Form (STP), Auditory Verbal learning Test (AVLT), Visual Auditory Digit Span B (VADS B) were applied to all the subjects included. fMRI scans can be used only nine patients in each groups. The findings revealed group differences between cingulate cortex and primary mortor cortex; cingulate cortex and somatosensory association cortex; angular gyrus (AG) and dorsal posterior cingulate cortex, in these networks increased activity was observed in participants with ADHD + CD compared with the ADHD. We found that lower resting state (rs)-activity was observed between left AG and dorsal posterior cingulate cortex, whereas higher rs-activity connectivity were detected between right AG and somatosensory association cortex in ADHD relative to the ones with ADHD + CD. In neuropsyhcological tasks, ADHD + CD group showed poor performance in WISC-R, WCST, Stroop, AVLT tasks compared to TDs. The ADHD + CD group displayed rs-functional abnormalities in DMN. Our results suggest that abnormalities in the intrinsic activity of resting state networks may contribute to the etiology of CD and poor prognosis of ADHD + CD