Correction to: A multilevel longitudinal study of obsessive compulsive symptoms in adolescence: male gender and emotional stability as protective factors

Erratum/corrigendum to: Stavropoulos V, Moore KA, Lazaratou H, Dikeos D, Gomez R. A multilevel longitudinal study of obsessive compulsive symptoms in adolescence: male gender and emotional stability as protective factors. Ann Gen Psychiatry. 2017;16:42. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12991-017-0165-z

Community Violence Exposure and Conduct Problems in Children and Adolescents with Conduct Disorder and Healthy Controls

Exposure to community violence through witnessing or being directly victimized has been associated with conduct problems in a range of studies. However, the relationship between community violence exposure (CVE) and conduct problems has never been studied separately in healthy individuals and individuals with conduct disorder (CD). Therefore, it is not clear whether the association between CVE and conduct problems is due to confounding factors, because those with high conduct problems also tend to live in more violent neighborhoods, i.e., an ecological fallacy. Hence, the aim of the present study was: (1) to investigate whether the association between recent CVE and current conduct problems holds true for healthy controls as well as adolescents with a diagnosis of CD; (2) to examine whether the association is stable in both groups when including effects of aggression subtypes (proactive/reactive aggression), age, gender, site and socioeconomic status (SES); and (3) to test whether proactive or reactive aggression mediate the link between CVE and conduct problems. Data from 1178 children and adolescents (62% female; 44% CD) aged between 9 years and 18 years from seven European countries were analyzed. Conduct problems were assessed using the Kiddie-Schedule of Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia diagnostic interview. Information about CVE and aggression subtypes was obtained using self-report questionnaires (Social and Health Assessment and Reactive-Proactive aggression Questionnaire (RPQ), respectively). The association between witnessing community violence and conduct problems was significant in both groups (adolescents with CD and healthy controls). The association was also stable after examining the mediating effects of aggression subtypes while including moderating effects of age, gender and SES and controlling for effects of site in both groups. There were no clear differences between the groups in the strength of the association between witnessing violence and conduct problems. However, we found evidence for a ceiling effect, i.e., individuals with very high levels of conduct problems could not show a further increase if exposed to CVE and vice versa. Results indicate that there was no evidence for an ecological fallacy being the primary cause of the association, i.e., CVE must be considered a valid risk factor in the etiology of CD

Maturation of the Cardiac Autonomic Nervous System Activity in Children and Adolescents

Background Despite the increasing interest in cardiac autonomic nervous activity, the normal development is not fully understood. The main aim was to determine the maturation of different cardiac sympathetic‐(SNS) and parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) activity parameters in healthy patients aged 0.5 to 20 years. A second aim was to determine potential sex differences. Methods and Results Five studies covering the 0.5‐ to 20‐year age range provided impedance‐ and electrocardiography recordings from which heart rate, different PNS‐parameters (eg, respiratory sinus arrhythmia) and an SNS‐parameter (pre‐ejection period) were collected. Age trends were computed in the mean values across 12 age‐bins and in the age‐specific variances. Age was associated with changes in mean and variance of all parameters. PNS‐activity followed a cubic trend, with an exponential increase from infancy, a plateau phase during middle childhood, followed by a decrease to adolescence. SNS‐activity showed a more linear trend, with a gradual decrease from infancy to adolescence. Boys had higher SNS‐activity at ages 11 to 15 years, while PNS‐activity was higher at 5 and 11 to 12 years with the plateau level reached earlier in girls. Interindividual variation was high at all ages. Variance was reasonably stable for SNS‐ and the log‐transformed PNS‐parameters. Conclusions Cardiac PNS‐ and SNS‐activity in childhood follows different maturational trajectories. Whereas PNS‐activity shows a cubic trend with a plateau phase during middle childhood, SNS‐activity shows a linear decrease from 0.5 to 20 years. Despite the large samples used, clinical use of the sex‐specific centile and percentile normative values is modest in view of the large individual differences, even within narrow age bands.National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases; the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research; National Initiative for Brain and Cognition Research; European Commission under the 7th Framework Health Program with Grant; The Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development (ZonMw); The Dutch Heart Foundatio

The therapeutic challenge of anorexia nervosa [Le défi thérapeutique de l'anorexie mentale]

The onset of anorexia nervosa occurs in adolescence and is characterized by a typical identifiable clinical picture. The psychoanalytic approach pursues behind the identical as well as repetitive elements of symptoms, the particular dynamics that determine the relational mode and emotional investments. In psychoanalytic literature anorexia covers an entire nosological field and it is either referred to as a neurosis, depression, personality disorder or psychosis. In this paper a clinical case is presented, and it is shown that anorexia has been confronted as a psychosomatic disorganization. The theoretical approach is based on P. Sifneos ideas, as well as those of the Psychosomatic School of Paris. In this particular case where the psychic functions of the patient are dominated by alexithymia and functional thought the traditional psychoanalytic therapeutic approach has seemed insufficient. The therapist, considering also the particularities of adolescence dynamics, ought to change the classical therapeutic approach and turn to different goals

From desire to realization: Children of Medically Assisted Reproduction (MAR) [Du désir à l'acte: Les enfants de la Procréation Médicalement Assistée (PMA)]

New advances in medically assisted reproduction procedures have resulted in the births of physically healthy children. A review of the literature shows that these children also demonstrate healthy cognitive and emotional development. Some studies indicate that they also experience a positive and warm relationship with their parents. On the other hand, in clinical practice, we often see children conceived by medicallyassisted reproduction presenting with psychological disorders. From a psychodynamic perspective, the child's pathology could be related to the trauma of infertility and the psychological burden of the IVF procedure upon the parents, the maintenance or not of secrecy concerning the nature of me child's conception, the intensity of parental desire to have children and the excessive investment of the child as a rare and valuable object. In such cases, we might hypothesise that the presence of the child has not been able to fulfill the restorative role as regards parental trauma. In each case, the answer is a strictly individual one and may be related to the parents' personality, the relationship they had with their own parents or to conflicts and unmet needs stemming from their childhood. All the above parameters must be taken into account in order to better understand, in a psychodynamic perspective, the disorders of children born after medically assisted reproduction

The exposition of children to intrafamilial violence. The transmission of interpersonal psychic trauma from parents to children [L'exposition des enfants À la violence intrafamiliale. La transmission du trauma psychique interpersonnel des parents aux enfants]

After recalling the psychoanalytical approach to the notion of trauma and the concept post-traumatic stress disorder (particularly in children), the authors propose the concept of interpersonal trauma frequently associated with the question of intrafamilial violence. A review of different risk factors is then set out: the child's age, tempermant, the intensity of the traumatic event, the type of mother-child interactions, the role and place of the father and finally, intrafamilial violence itself. A neuroscientific, psychodynamic approach to interpersonal trauma is presented in conclusion. © Presses Universitaires de France. Tous droits réservés pour tous pays

Hyperacti vity, between biology and culture: The geographical, temporal, and cultural variations of attention deficit hyperacti vity disorder [L'hyperactivité, entre biologie et culture les variations géographiques, temporelles et culturelles du trouble déficitaire de l'attention avec hyperactivité]

Beginning by setting out the limits of nosography within the field of mental pathology and the epistemological foundations of the different etiological models of hyperactivity, the authors briefly address the history of the concept of hyperactivity itself, in relation to the most recent editions of the DSM (DSM-III, DSM-IV, and DSM-V), highlighting the ambiguity of the diagnostic criteria. They then present a literature review, demonstrating differences in the prevalence of this particular pathology depending upon place and time, before reviewing a number of works centered either on diagnosis or on treatment, which show major divergences depending upon cultural context. Is the concept of hyperactivity therefore a societal choice? © Presses Universitaires de France. Tous droits réservés pour tous pays