Comparison of psychopathology in the mothers of autistic and mentally retarded children.

The aim of this study was to evaluate anxiety, depression, alexithymia, and general psychological symptoms in the mothers of autistic children in comparison with those in the mothers of mentally retarded children. Forty mothers of autistic children and 38 mothers of mentally retarded children were included in the study. After a clinical interview, psychometric tests were performed for depression, anxiety, alexithymia, and Symptom Distress Check List (SCL-90) for general psychological symptoms. Non-depression rates was 27.5% in the mothers of autistic children whereas the rate was 55.3% in the mothers of mentally retarded children. There was no difference regarding anxiety and alexithymia between the two groups. The psychopathology in the mothers of autistic children was more frequent than in those of mentally retarded children in all sub-scales of SCL-90 (somatization obsessive-compulsive, interpersonal sensitivity, depression, anxiety, anger-hostility, phobic anxiety, paranoid thought, psychotism, and extra scale). The mothers of autistic children experienced more psychological distress than those of mentally retarded children. Our findings indicates that the assessment of autistic and mentally retarded children should include psychological assessment of their mothers

Parsing cyclothymic disorder and other specified bipolar spectrum disorders in youth

© 2018 Elsevier B.V. Objective: Most studies of pediatric bipolar disorder (BP) combine youth who have manic symptoms, but do not meet criteria for BP I/II, into one “not otherwise specified” (NOS) group. Consequently, little is known about how youth with cyclothymic disorder (CycD) differ from youth with BP NOS. The objective of this study was to determine whether youth with a research diagnosis of CycD (RDCyc) differ from youth with operationalized BP NOS. Method: Participants from the Course and Outcome of Bipolar Youth study were evaluated to determine whether they met RDCyc criteria. Characteristics of RDCyc youth and BP NOS youth were compared at baseline, and over eight-years follow-up. Results: Of 154 youth (average age 11.96 (3.3), 42% female), 29 met RDCyc criteria. RDCyc youth were younger (p =.04) at baseline. Over follow-up, RDCyc youth were more likely to have a disruptive behavior disorder (p =.01), and were more likely to experience irritability (p =.03), mood reactivity (p =.02), and rejection sensitivity (p =.03). BP NOS youth were more likely to develop hypomania (p =.02), or depression (p =.02), and tended to have mood episodes earlier in the eight-year follow-up period. Limitations: RDCyc diagnoses were made retrospectively and followed stringent criteria, which may highlight differences that, under typical clinical conditions and more vague criteria, would not be evident. Conclusion: There were few differences between RDCyc and BP NOS youth. However, the ways in which the groups diverged could have implications; chronic subsyndromal mood symptoms may portend a severe, but ultimately non-bipolar, course. Longer follow-up is necessary to determine the trajectory and outcomes of CycD symptoms

Neural Correlates of Treatment in Adolescents with Bipolar Depression During Response Inhibition

Abstract Objective: Abnormal prefrontal and subcortical activity during cognitive control tasks is identified in non-depressed adolescents with bipolar disorder (BD); however, little is known about the neural correlates of bipolar adolescents in a depressed state (BDd). We aimed to investigate baseline versus after-treatment patterns of neural activity underlying motor response and response inhibition in adolescents with BDd. Methods: In this functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study, 10 adolescents with BDd relative to 10 age-and sexmatched healthy controls (HC) completed a well-validated go/no go block-design cognitive control task at baseline and after 6 weeks of naturalistic treatment. We used whole-brain analysis and controlled our results for multiple comparisons. Results: There was significant improvement in depression scores (mean change: 57% -28). There was no behavioral difference in BDd baseline versus HC and after treatment. BDd adolescents relative to HC had higher baseline cortical, but not subcortical, neural activity (e.g., bilateral ventrolateral prefrontal during both the go [motor control] and the no go [response inhibition] conditions, and left superior temporal during the no go condition). However, after-treatment activity relative to baseline neural activity during response inhibition was significantly increased in subcortical (e.g., right hippocampus and left thalamus), but not cortical, regions. In addition, at baseline, lower left thalamus activity was correlated with higher depression scores. Conclusions: Adolescents with BDd had baseline prefrontal and temporal hyperactivity underlying motor control and response inhibition that did not change after treatment in contrast to relatively decreased baseline subcortical activity underlying response inhibition associated with the depressive state that was increased after the treatment

Cognitive flexibility and performance in children and adolescents with threshold and sub-threshold bipolar disorder

Greater understanding of cognitive function in children and adolescents with bipolar disorder (BD) is of critical importance to improve our ability to design targeted treatments to help with real-world impairment, including academic performance. We sought to evaluate cognitive performance among children with either BD type I, II, or “not otherwise specified” (NOS) participating in multi-site Course and Outcome of Bipolar Youth study compared to typically developing controls (TDC) without psycho-pathology. In particular, we sought to test the hypothesis that BD-I and BD-II youths with full threshold episodes of mania or hypomania would have cognitive deficits, including in reversal learning, vs. those BD-NOS participants with sub-threshold episodes and TDCs. N = 175 participants (BD-I = 81, BD-II = 11, BD-NOS = 28, TDC = 55) completed Cambridge Neuropsychological Automated Testing Battery (CANTAB) tasks. A priori analyses of the simple reversal stage of the CANTAB intra-/extra-dimensional shift task showed that aggregated BD-I/II participants required significantly more trials to complete the task than either BD-NOS participants with sub-syndromal manic/hypomanic symptoms or than TDCs. BD participants across sub-types had impairments in sustained attention and information processing for emotionally valenced words. Our results align with prior findings showing that BD-I/II youths with distinct episodes have specific alterations in reversal learning. More broadly, our study suggests that further work is necessary to see the interaction between neurocognitive performance and longitudinal illness course. Additional work is required to identify the neural underpinnings of these differences as targets for potential novel treatments, such as cognitive remediation

Obsesif kompulsif bozukluğu olan çocuk ve ergenlerde ''Paraksetin'' in güvenirliği ve etkinliği: Açık bir çalışma

TEZ3104Tez (Uzmanlık) -- Çukurova Üniversitesi, Adana, 1999.Kaynakça (s. 104-118) var.ix, 132 s. ; 30 cm.

A new approach in the treatment of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: Guanfacine

Psikostimulanlar dikkat eksikliği hiperaktivite bozukluğu (DEHB) tedavisinde kullanılan önemli araçlardır, ancak bazı sınırlamaları vardır, a-2 noradrenerjik agonist olan klonid-inin DEHB olan aşırı aktif, karşıt olma ve agresyon gösteren hastalarda etkin olduğu bil¬dirilmiştir. Guanfasin a-2 noradrenerjik bir agonisttir ve klonidine göre çok önemli üs¬tünlükleri vardır. Guanfasin klonidine göre daha seçici olarak reseptörlere bağlanır ve daha uzun yarı ömrü vardır; daha az sedatif ve htpotanstftir. Bu yazıda Guanfasinin bi¬liş ve aktivite üzerindeki etkileri gözden geçirilmiştir. Çok hafif bir sedasyon yapmasına karşın, davranış üzerindeki sakinleştirici ve engellenme eşiğini yükseltici etkisiyle guan¬fasin; en çok aşırı uyarılmış, huzursuz ve hiperaktif çocuklarda etkili gibi görünmektedir.The psychostimulants are used in the treatment of ADHD, but have some limitations. Clonidine which is an a-2 noradrenergic agonist has been reported to be effective in the treatment of highly active, oppositional and aggressive patients with ADHD. Guanfacine is an a-2 noradrenergic agonist and has several significant advantages over clonidine. Guanfacine has a more selective reseptor-binding profile, has a longer excretion half life and is less sedating and less hypotensive than clonidine. In this paper the effect of guanfacine in cognition and activity is reviewed. The behavioral effects of calming and improved frustration tolerance with guanfacine-occuring at the expense of the slight sedation-appear most beneficial in highly aroused, Irritable, hyperactive children