Persistent emotional disorder in children with neurological soft signs

Abstract

Provides clinical details in the form of 11 case vignettes from a prospective epidemiological study that found the combination of childhood \u27soft\u27 signs and anxious behavior to be a strong risk factor for adolescent emotional disorders. The original study conducted a neuropsychiatric assessment of 180 African-American adolescents (aged 16–18 yrs) who had been followed through childhood. The at-risk Ss exhibited a persistent and specific pattern of both motor abnormalities and anxiety, obsessional compulsive, or depressive symptoms over time. The form of at-risk Ss\u27 neurological and psychiatric abnormalities is consistent with a link between motor system abnormalities and emotional disorders