Development and Initial Validation of the Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder Questionnaire Among Adolescents From Clinic Settings.

Objectives: Disruptive mood dysregulation disorder (DMDD) is a new DSM-5 diagnosis. It is observed in youths and is characterized by chronic irritability and temper outbursts. This study aimed (i) to develop a brief questionnaire administered during a semi-structured interview and (ii) to assess its psychometric properties with adolescents 12-15 years old by estimating its internal consistency and its concurrent association with measures of depressive symptoms and borderline personality traits.

Prevalence and comorbidity of borderline personality traits in the Quebec general population aged 12-14 years.

Purpose: The early identification of borderline personality traits (BPT) in adolescents helps to prevent their progression. Data are available for the clinical population, but little has been published on the general population, especially regarding age and sex distribution in adolescence. Even less is known about the comorbidity of BPT with other mental disorders.

Long-Term Metabolic Monitoring of Youths Treated with Second-Generation Antipsychotics 5 Years after Publication of the CAMESA Guidelines Are We Making Progress? Surveillance Métabolique à Long Terme des Jeunes Traités par Antipsychotiques de Deuxième Génération, Cinq ans Après la publication des Lignes Directrices Camesa: Faisons-Nous des Progrès?

Objective: The potential metabolic adverse effects of second-generation antipsychotics (SGA) need to be monitored. The Canadian Alliance for Monitoring Effectiveness and Safety of Antipsychotics (CAMESA) offers guidelines for this purpose. We aimed to evaluate the long-term rates of youths receiving monitoring in mental health clinics and document the factors that may influence them.

Sleep Difficulties in Preschoolers with Psychiatric Diagnoses.

Sleep problems among preschoolers are highly prevalent. Given the impact of poor sleep quality on development, this relationship is particularly relevant in vulnerable populations but is less documented. This study aims to document parental perception of sleep problems in preschoolers assessed in a psychiatric clinic, as a function of diagnosis type.

NREM sleep EEG activity and procedural memory: A comparison between young neurotypical and autistic adults without sleep complaints.

Unlabelled: Delta EEG activity (0.75-3.75 Hz) during non-Rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep reflects the thalamo-cortical system contribution to memory consolidation.

Exploratory Study of the Clinical Characteristics of Adolescent Girls with a History of Physical or Sexual Abuse Consulting in a Mood Disorder Clinic.

Objective: To examine the clinical characteristics of adolescent girls consulting in a mood disorder clinic with a history of physical or sexual abuse.

Method: A retrospective review was conducted of the charts of 55 adolescent girls consulting in a mood disorder clinic. An analysis grid was used to gather data on demographics, personal antecedents, symptoms and diagnoses.

Familial and Clinical Correlates in Depressed Adolescents with Borderline Personality Disorder Traits.

Introduction: Chart review is a low-cost, but highly informative, method to describe symptoms, treatment, and risk factors associated with borderline personality disorder (BPD) and to adapt screening and intervention to clinical reality. Previous chart review studies report more aggressiveness/anger and psychotic features in youths with BPD. They show that adverse family environment and parental psychopathology constitute important factors for BPD pathology.

A Developmental Perspective of Global and Local Visual Perception in Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) demonstrate superior performances on visuo-spatial tasks emphasizing local information processing; however, findings from studies involving hierarchical stimuli are inconsistent. Wide age ranges and group means complicate their interpretability. Children and adolescents with and without ASD completed a Navon task wherein they identified global and local stimuli composed of either consistent or inconsistent letters.

The developmental trajectory of contrast sensitivity in autism spectrum disorder.

Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is characterized by a detail-driven visual processing strategy, evidence for which has been based largely on cross-sectional studies in small participant groups of limited age ranges. It is therefore unknown when sensitivity to detailed information emerges and develops in ASD. Contrast sensitivity to sinusoidal gratings of different spatial frequencies (0.

Comorbidity of ADHD and Anxiety Disorders in School-Age Children: Impact on Sleep and Response to a Cognitive-Behavioral Treatment.

Objective: This exploratory study measured the impact of comorbid anxiety disorders on sleep in children with ADHD and tested the effect of cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) on these measures.

Method: Fifty-seven children (8-12 years old) were assessed with the Child Sleep Habits Questionnaire. Four groups were formed: ADHD ( n = 20), ADHD + Anxiety ( n = 20), Anxiety ( n = 8), and Healthy Controls ( n = 9).

Autism-specific covariation in perceptual performances: "g" or "p" factor?

Background: Autistic perception is characterized by atypical and sometimes exceptional performance in several low- (e.g., discrimination) and mid-level (e.

An early origin for detailed perception in Autism Spectrum Disorder: biased sensitivity for high-spatial frequency information.

Autistics demonstrate superior performances on several visuo-spatial tasks where local or detailed information processing is advantageous. Altered spatial filtering properties at an early level of visuo-spatial analysis may be a plausible perceptual origin for such detailed perception in Autism Spectrum Disorder. In this study, contrast sensitivity for both luminance and texture-defined vertically-oriented sine-wave gratings were measured across a range of spatial frequencies (0.

Reliability, validity, and clinical use of the Dominic Interactive: a DSM-based, self-report screen for school-aged children.

Objectives: As no single informant can be considered the gold standard of child psychopathology, interviewing of children regarding their own symptoms is necessary. Our study focused on the reliability, validity, and clinical use of the Dominic Interactive (DI), a multimedia self-report screen to assess symptoms for the most frequent Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition, Text Revision, mental disorders in school-aged children.

Methods: A sample of 585 children aged 6 to 11 years from the community and psychiatric clinics was used to analyze the internal consistency, the test-retest estimate of reliability, and the criterion-related validity of the DI against the referral status.

Relationship between poor sleep and daytime cognitive performance in young adults with autism.

Poor sleep is a common feature in autism even though patients themselves do not necessarily complain. The impact of poor sleep on daytime cognitive functioning in autism is not well-known and we therefore investigated whether sleep in autism correlates with daytime cognitive performance. A battery of non-verbal tasks was administered, in the morning after a second night of sleep in the laboratory, to 17 young adults with autism and normal intelligence, and 14 typically developed individuals matched for age and IQ; none of the participants complained about sleep problems.

Clinical characteristics of depressed youths in child psychiatry.

Objective: To describe the clinical characteristics of depressed children and adolescents according to age groups and sex.

Methods: A retrospective chart review study was conducted on 75 youths aged 6-17 years referred for depressive disorders to child psychiatry in 2002-2003. Descriptive statistics and tests of association were completed to compare boys aged 6-11 years, boys aged 12-17 years and girls aged 12-17 years.

Pre-adoption adversity and self-reported behavior problems in 7 year-old international adoptees.

To further investigate the long-term impact of pre-adoption adversity on international adoptees, externalizing and internalizing symptoms were assessed using a self-report measure at school-age in addition to mothers' reports. The sample consisted of 95 adopted children and their mothers. Children's health and developmental status were assessed soon after arrival in their adoptive family.

Maternal Lifetime Depressive/Anxiety Disorders and Children's Internalizing Symptoms: The Importance of Family Context.

Objectives: This study investigated the interaction effects between mothers' lifetime depressive/anxiety disorders and other psychosocial correlates of 6 to 11 year-old children's self-reported internalizing symptoms in the Quebec Child Mental Health Survey.

Method: A representative subsample of 1,490 Quebec children aged 6 to 11 years was selected from the original sample. Multiple linear regression analyses were performed using children's internalizing symptoms and child, family and socioeconomic characteristics.

A physical activity program improves behavior and cognitive functions in children with ADHD: an exploratory study.

Objective: The objective of this study is to explore the effects of a moderate- to high-intensity physical activity program on fitness, cognitive functions, and ADHD-related behavior in children with ADHD.

Method: Fitness level, motor skills, behaviors, and cognitive functions are assessed by standardized tests before and after a 10-week training or control period.

Results: Findings show that participation in a physical activity program improves muscular capacities, motor skills, behavior reports by parents and teachers, and level of information processing.

Enhanced connectivity between visual cortex and other regions of the brain in autism: a REM sleep EEG coherence study.

Functional interregional neural coupling was measured as EEG coherence during REM sleep, a state of endogenous cortical activation, in 9 adult autistic individuals (21.1±4.0 years) and 13 typically developed controls (21.

Enhanced pure-tone pitch discrimination among persons with autism but not Asperger syndrome.

Persons with Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) display atypical perceptual processing in visual and auditory tasks. In vision, Bertone, Mottron, Jelenic, and Faubert (2005) found that enhanced and diminished visual processing is linked to the level of neural complexity required to process stimuli, as proposed in the neural complexity hypothesis. Based on these findings, Samson, Mottron, Jemel, Belin, and Ciocca (2006) proposed to extend the neural complexity hypothesis to the auditory modality.

Psychometric properties of a pictorial instrument for assessing psychopathology in youth aged 12 to 15 years: the Dominic Interactive for Adolescents.

Objectives: Over the last 15 years, adequate psychometric properties of the different versions of the Dominic led to the development of the Dominic Interactive for Adolescents (DIA). The DIA is a Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM), Fourth Edition, Text Revision-based self-administered computerized pictorial instrument for assessing the most frequent mental disorders in adolescents aged 12 to 15 years. Our study aims to verify the internal consistency, the test-retest estimate of reliability, and the criterion-related validity of this instrument.