Prog Neuropsychopharmacol Biol Psychiatry
October 2024
Part I of this systematic review summarized the state-of-the-art of pediatric psychopharmacology for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), a severe and lifelong neurodevelopmental disorder. The purpose of this Part II follow-up article is to provide a systematic overview of the experimental psychopharmacology of ASD. To this aim, we have first identified in the Clinicaltrials.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Anorexia nervosa (AN) and obesity (OB) are relevant concerns in adolescence. Despite their contrasting phenotypes, they share common pathogenic origins and may be present in the same individual at different times. We explored the psychopathology and attachment features of adolescents with AN who did (AN-ow) or did not (AN-nw) have previous overweight, compared with OB adolescents and healthy control (HC) adolescents.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFImportance: There are suggestions that school pressure may be stressful and a factor in child and adolescent mental health disturbances, but data about this association are scarce and inconclusive.
Objective: To assess whether varying degrees of school interruption were associated with changes in emergency department (ED) psychiatric visits of children and adolescents before and after the COVID-19 outbreak.
Design, Setting, And Participants: A cross-sectional observational study was conducted at 9 urban university hospitals in Italy.
Aim: After the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for intensive nutritional care in patients affected with anorexia nervosa (AN) increased. The use of NGT was often used to overcome renutrition difficulties. This systematic review explores the evidence concerning the psychological effects of an enteral nasogastric tube (NGT) feeding on patients with AN.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFPsychopharmacological treatment is an important component of the multimodal intervention approach to treating mental health conditions in children and adolescents. Currently, there are many unmet needs but also opportunities, alongside possible risks to consider, regarding the pharmacological treatment of mental health conditions in children and adolescents. In this Position Paper, we highlight and address these unmet needs and opportunities, including the perspectives of clinicians and researchers from the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology-Child and Adolescent Network, alongside those of experts by lived experience from national and international associations, via a survey involving 644 participants from 13 countries, and of regulators, through representation from the European Medicines Agency.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjectives: To examine how the concept of prevention is applicable to adolescent ADHD, which preventive interventions may be feasible, and which methods can be used to evaluate effectiveness.
Method: Following a literature search for prevention clinical trials relevant to adolescent ADHD, selected studies are critically reviewed to identify suitable targets and promising interventions.
Results: There is some evidence from controlled studies that interventions delivered to prepubertal children at high risk for ADHD or diagnosed with ADHD may decrease the incidence or persistence of ADHD in adolescence.
J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry
November 2023
We thank Dr. Hamilton for his interest in our research and for provoking a more nuanced and detailed approach to analyzing the relationship among treatment assignment, treatment response, and correct treatment guessing in randomized controlled trials; in this case, the Micronutrients for ADHD in Youth (MADDY) study..
View Article and Find Full Text PDFImportance: Possible associations between stimulant treatment of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and subsequent substance use remain debated and clinically relevant.
Objective: To assess the association of stimulant treatment of ADHD with subsequent substance use using the Multimodal Treatment Study of ADHD (MTA), which provides a unique opportunity to test this association while addressing methodologic complexities (principally, multiple dynamic confounding variables).
Design, Setting, And Participants: MTA was a multisite study initiated at 6 sites in the US and 1 in Canada as a 14-month randomized clinical trial of medication and behavior therapy for ADHD but transitioned to a longitudinal observational study.
Aim: Concerns have been raised about possible neuropsychiatric sequelae of COVID-19. The objective of this study was to examine the plausibility of long-term mental health consequences of COVID-19 by assessing a sample of children after the resolution of the acute SARS-CoV-2 infection.
Method: As part of a systematic follow-up assessment of pediatric patients with COVID-19 conducted at two university children's hospitals, 50 children (56% males) aged 8 to 17 years (median 11.
Background: Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a serious mental illness of growing prevalence in childhood and adolescence. Despite its severity, there are still no completely satisfactory evidence-based treatments. Follow-up studies represent the most effective attempt to enlighten treatment effectiveness, outcome predictors and process indicators.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFWe aimed to identify promising novel medications for child and adolescent mental health problems. We systematically searched https://clinicaltrials.gov/ and https://www.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Hospitals can be especially stressful for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) due to the communication and social skills deficits, lower capacity to adapt to disruption, and sensory hypersensitivity that are typical of these patients.
Purpose: This study investigated how health-care professionals (HPs) experienced the clinical care and management of children with ASD undergoing medical testing in a day hospital setting, and assessed the rate of successful completion of laboratory tests and instrumental examinations.
Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire was administered to 45 HPs, inquiring about their experience in obtaining blood and urine tests, ECG, audiometry, and EEG from children with ASD.
Objective: Sleep disturbance and emotional dysregulation (ED) are common and often functionally impairing in young children with neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD). This study investigated the relationship between sleep disturbance and ED in a sample of preschoolers with ASD, intellectual disability, or global developmental delay, and examined possible predictors of their persistence over time.
Methods: All children under 6 years of age clinically referred between July 2018 and May 2022 to two neuropsychiatric specialized centers for NDD received a comprehensive diagnostic evaluation, including the Child Behavior Checklist 1.
We describe the implementation and evaluation of an online sexuality psychoeducation group program for parents of young people attending the transgender and gender diverse outpatient service of a pediatric hospital. The 10 participants completed semi-structured pre- and post-intervention questionnaires assessing: whether they had ever discussed with their children about aspects of sexuality, or had the intention of doing it in the future; the level of knowledge and comfort in speaking about these topics; the perceived level of helpfulness of the intervention; and, by using open-ended items, the topics they considered to be most relevant. After attending the program, parents reported they had started talking with their children about issues which previously had been little or not discussed, such as sexting, sexually transmitted diseases, pregnancy, fertility, abuse, and healthy relationships.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMol Autism
February 2023
Background: Heterogeneous mental health outcomes during the COVID-19 pandemic are documented in the general population. Such heterogeneity has not been systematically assessed in youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and related neurodevelopmental disorders (NDD). To identify distinct patterns of the pandemic impact and their predictors in ASD/NDD youth, we focused on pandemic-related changes in symptoms and access to services.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: This study longitudinally investigated mental health indicators, body mass index (BMI), and access to school and health-care services in children with Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) and community controls (CC) during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods: The parents of 71 children (34 PWS and 37 CC) aged 6-17 years completed an online questionnaire during the initial COVID-19 lockdown (T0) and the subsequent partial (T1) and full re-opening (T2). We examined access to school and health-care services, BMI, and mental health (DSM-5 Parent/Guardian Rated Cross-Cutting Syndrome Measure) across the three time-points.
J Am Acad Child Adolesc Psychiatry
April 2023
There is a strong tradition in child mental health of developing measures to assess both general psychopathology and specific constructs such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism, depression, anxiety, and obsessive-compulsive disorder. For psychosis, however, the tendency has been to use in children instruments that were developed for adults, such as the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS). There are general good reasons for using the same assessment tools in youth as in adults, because this facilitates comparisons across the lifespan.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The Occupational Depression Inventory (ODI) reflects a new approach to job-related distress centered on work-attributed depressive symptoms. The instrument was developed with reference to the characterization of major depression found in the , fifth edition. The ODI has been validated in English, French, and Spanish.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFDevising automatic tools to assist specialists in the early detection of mental disturbances and psychotic disorders is to date a challenging scientific problem and a practically relevant activity. In this work we explore how language models (that are probability distributions over text sequences) can be employed to analyze language and discriminate between mentally impaired and healthy subjects. We have preliminarily explored whether perplexity can be considered a reliable metrics to characterize an individual's language.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Idiopathic generalized epilepsies (IGEs) represent 15−20% of all cases of epilepsy in children. This study explores predictors of long-term outcome in a sample of children with childhood absence epilepsy (CAE). Methods: The medical records of patients with CAE treated at a university paediatric hospital between 1995 and 2022 were systematically reviewed.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFInnovative targeted treatments for neuromuscular disorders (NMDs) can dramatically improve the course of illness. Diagnostic delay, however, is a major impediment. Here, we present a pilot project aimed at assessing the feasibility of a screening program to identify children at high risk for NMDs within the first 30 months of life.
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