Psychopathology And Functioning Among Children Of Treated Depressed Fathers And Mothers

Objective: Recent findings suggest that remissions of maternal depression are associated with decrease in offspring psychopathology. Little is known about the offspring effects of decrease in paternal depression. Method: The offspring of married fathers and married mothers were compared. The analysis was restricted to married parents to control for the confounding effect of single parenthood which was more prevalent among depressed mothers. At baseline all parents met criteria for major depressive disorder (MDD), and participated in a 3 month randomized controlled trial to treat depression with a 6 month follow-up. Married parents (N¼43) and their children aged 7–17 years (N¼78) were assessed independently through direct interviews of children and parents at baseline and followed for 9 months. Child assessors were blind to the clinical status of parents and uninvolved in their treatment. Results: At baseline, children of depressed fathers, compared to children of depressed mothers, had significantly fewer psychiatric disorders (11% vs. 37%; p¼ 0.012) and less impairment as measured by the Columbia Impairment Scale (6.5 vs. 11.6; p¼0.009). Over time, with treatment of parental depression, the prevalence of most child symptoms decreased among children of depressed mothers, but changed little among children of depressed fathers. Limitations: The main limitation of the study is the small number of fathers and their offspring included in the study. Conclusion: Maternal as compared to paternal depression had a greater impact on children. With treatment of parental depression the differential prevalence of child symptoms by parental gender narrowed over time. The clinical implication is that children may benefit from treatment of their depressed parents

Treatment Of Maternal Depression In A Medication Clinical Trial And Its Effect On Children

Objective: Observational studies show that when a depressed mother’s symptoms remit, her children’s psychiatric symptoms decrease. Using randomized treatment assignment, the authors sought to determine the differential effects of a depressed mother’s treatment on her child. Method: The study was a randomized double-blind 12-week trial of escitalopram, bupropion, or the combination of the two in depressed mothers (N=76), with independent assessment of their children (N=135; ages 7–17 years). Results: There were no significant treatment differences in mothers’ depressive symptoms or remission. Children’s depressive symptoms and functioning improved significantly among those whose mothers were in the escitalopram group (compared with those whose mothers were in the bupropion and combination treatment groups). Only in the escitalopram group was significant improvement of mother’s depression associated with improvement in the child’s symptoms. Exploratory analyses suggested that this may be due to changes in parental functioning: Mothers in the escitalopram group reported significantly greater improvement, compared with the other groups, in their ability to listen and talk to their children, who as a group reported that their mothers were more caring over the 12 weeks. Maternal baseline negative affectivity appeared to moderate the effect of maternal treatment on children, although the effect was not statistically significant. Children of mothers with low negative affectivity improved in all treatment groups. Children of mothers with high negative affectivity improved significantly only for those whose mothers were in the escitalopram group. Conclusions: The effects of the depressed mother’s improvement on her children may depend on her type of treatment. Depressed mothers with high anxious distress and irritability may require medications that reduce these symptoms in order to show the effect of her remission on her children

Eating disorder or oesophageal achalasia during adolescence: diagnostic difficulties

International audienceMarine was a fourteen and a half-year-old adolescent female hospitalized for an eating disorder (ED) of the anorexic type with purging behaviors. She has had a complicated life course, made up of disruptions and discontinuities, both family and school. Since the age of five, Marine had been intermittently treated in psychiatry for a diagnosis of oppositional defiant disorder. The current illness started with spontaneous and induced vomiting associated with major weight loss (body mass index, 15.27 kg m−2). The diagnosis of anorexia nervosa was established after several opinions from professionals in five Parisian university pediatric departments, where additional investigations were carried out without any somatic cause being identified. In this context, Marine was transferred to a child psychiatry unit. There, she had acute dyspnea during the insertion of a nasogastric tube. As a result, a new specialized opinion was sought from a pediatric gastroenterologist and further explorations were performed (oeso-gastroduodenal transit and manometry), leading to the conclusion to an oesophageal achalasia requiring surgical treatment. This case report highlights that the exclusion of any organic disorder should be a priority in the diagnostic assessment of an ED. Oesophageal achalasia is a rare differential diagnosis and should be considered in case of swallowing difficulties or dysphagia. Health care professionals should take care to provide appropriate somatic follow-up for patients with psychiatric disorders

DOI: 10.1017/S0033291704004295 Printed in the United Kingdom Cognitive control in childhood-onset obsessive–compulsive disorder: a functional MRI study

Background. Failure to resist chronic obsessive–compulsive symptoms may denote an altered state of cognitive control. We searched for the cerebral regions engaged in this dysfunction. Method. Differences in brain regional activity were examined by event-related functional magnetic regional imaging (fMRI) in a group of adolescents or young adults (n=12) with childhood-onset obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD), relative to healthy subjects. Subjects performed a conflict task involving the presentation of two consecutive and possibly conflicting prime and target numbers. Patients ’ image dataset was further analysed according to resistance or non-resistance to symptoms during the scans. Results. Using volume correction based on a priori hypotheses, an exploratory analysis revealed that, within the prime-target repetition condition, the OCD subjects activated more than healthy subjects a subregion of the anterior cingulate gyrus and the left parietal lobe. Furthermore, compared with ‘resistant ’ patients, the ‘non-resistant ’ OCD subjects activated a bilateral network including the precuneus, pulvinar and paracentral lobules. Conclusions. Higher regional activations suggest an abnormal amplification process in OCD subjects during the discrimination of repetitive visual stimuli. The regional distribution of functional changes may vary with the patients ’ ability to resist obsessions

Diffusion of efficacious interventions for children and adolescents with mental health problems

Background: Child and adolescent mental health problems are prevalent and require adequate interventions. Despite several evidence-based interventions for these problems described in the literature, few studies addressed strategies to diffuse efficacious interventions for child mental disorders especially in developing countries. Methods: An extensive but not systematic review of the literature was performed aiming to identify evidence-based interventions for children and adolescents with mental disorders, professionals to target in disseminating these interventions, and the available strategies to diffuse information. Results: Substantial evidence-based information is available to guide preventive, psychosocial and psychopharmacological interventions. the effectiveness of treatments in real-world settings and the cost-effectiveness of interventions are rarely tested. Professionals at different levels (teachers, school counselors, social workers, general practitioners, pediatricians, child psychologists and psychiatrists) should be targeted in diffusing efficacious interventions for child mental health problems worldwide. Telepsychiatry and the internet seem to be the most promising strategies to diffuse knowledge with lower costs. Conclusions: Medical and allied professionals must incorporate child and adolescent mental health issues in their under- and postgraduate curricula, and be better prepared to critically evaluate available information. Professionals need to disseminate evidence-based programs to guide parents and teachers in developing countries to deal with child and adolescent difficulties. Countries need to explore internet solutions for dissemination of medical information.Univ Fed Rio Grande do Sul, Hosp Clin Porto Alegre, Serv Psiquiatria Infancia & Adolescencia, Child & Adolescent Psychiat Div, BR-90035003 Porto Alegre, RS, BrazilUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Dept Psychiat, Child & Adolescent Psychiat Div, São Paulo, BrazilUniv Ottawa, Mental Hlth Res Inst, Youth Unit, Ottawa, ON K1N 6N5, CanadaBalamand Univ, Inst Dev Res Advocacy & Appl Care, Fac Med,Dept Psychiat & Clin Psychol, St George Hosp,Univ Med Ctr, Lebanon, NH USAGeha Mental Hlth Ctr, Div Adolescent & Child, Petah Tiqwa, IsraelUniversidade Federal de São Paulo, Dept Psychiat, Child & Adolescent Psychiat Div, São Paulo, BrazilWeb of Scienc

Family meals and body mass index among adolescents: effects of gender

Family meals have been identified as a protective factor against obesity among youth. However, gender specificities with respect to the relationship between the frequency of family meals and body mass index (BMI) have not been investigated. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between the frequency of family meals and BMI in male and female adolescents, while controlling for potential confounding factors associated with BMI, such as parental education, adolescent's age, and snack-food eating. Research participants were 734 male and 1030 female students (mean age, 14.12 years, SD = 1.62) recruited from middle schools and high schools in the capital region of Canada. Participants completed validated, self-report measures to assess the frequency of family meals and the risk factors associated with increased BMI, which was derived from objective measures of height and weight. After controlling for proposed confounding variables, a higher frequency of family meals was associated with lower BMI in females, but not in males. A Z-transformation test of the homogeneity of adjusted correlation coefficients showed a significant trend (p = 0.06), indicating that the relationship between family meals and BMI is stronger in females than males, consistent with our regression analyses. Our findings suggest that eating together as a family may be a protective factor against obesity in female adolescents, but not in male adolescents. Findings from this study have important implications for parents and health care practitioners advocating for more frequent family meals as part of a comprehensive obesity prevention and treatment program for female adolescents

Are anxiety or depressive disorders more frequent among one of the anorexia or bulimia nervosa subtype?

International audienceOur objective was to answer the following question: are there differences between diagnostic groups of eating disorders (ED) for the prevalence of depressive and anxiety disorders, when clinical differences between the groups are taken into account (ie age of subjects, ED duration, inpatient or outpatient status, and Body Mass Index)?METHOD: We evaluated the frequency of anxiety disorders and depressive disorders in 271 subjects presenting with a diagnosis of either anorexia nervosa or bulimia, using the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (MINI), DSM IV version. We compared the prevalences between sub-groups of anorexics (AN-R and AN-BN), between sub-groups of bulimics (BN-P and BN-NP) and between anorexics and bulimics while adjusting for the variables defined below.RESULTS: Current or lifetime comorbidity of anxiety and depressive disorders did not differ between AN-Rs and AN-BNs, nor between BN-Ps and BN-NPs. Only current diagnoses of agoraphobia and obsessive-compulsive disorder were significantly more frequent in anorexics than in bulimics.CONCLUSION: The greater frequency of comorbidity between obsessive-compulsive disorder and AN compared to BN, already well documented, is not questioned. The remaining anxiety disorders are equally frequent among all the diagnostic types of ED

Physical activity and psychological adjustment in adolescents

Objective: To examine the association between volume and intensity of physical activity (PA) and depressive symptoms, anxiety, and body image in a large sample of adolescents in Ottawa and surrounding region. Methods: A total of 1259 (n = 746 girls and n = 513 boys) students responded to surveys on leisure time PA, depressive symptoms, anxiety, and body image. Results: A dose response effect of intensity of PA and psychological distress was observed whereby those who performed greater bouts of vigorous PA exhibited better psychological adjustment than adolescents engaging in mild to moderate intensity activity. Gender impacted the results as vigorous PA was associated with reduced depression but not anxiety in boys, and reduced anxiet

Self-silencing and anger regulation as predictors of disordered eating among adolescent females

The main purpose of this study was to examine how self-silencing, emotional regulation, and body-esteem differentiated healthy eating from different patterns of disordered eating. A community sample of adolescent females was classified as either: 1) Restrained Eaters (n=104, Mage=14.48); 2) Emotional Eaters (n=125, Mage=14.52); or, 3) Healthy Eaters (n=396, Mage=13.71). A discriminant function analysis revealed two significant functions. The first function differentiated the two disordered eating groups (i.e., the restrained and emotional eaters) from the healthy group, with the disordered eating groups scoring significantly higher on levels of self-silencing and anger regulation, and lower on body-esteem. The second function differentiated between the restrained and emotional eaters, with the emotional eaters reporting higher levels of externalized self-perception and anger, and lower levels of body-esteem. The results suggest that body-esteem and anger suppression were the most influential variables in differentiating between groups. The finding