Genome-wide association study of response to cognitive-behavioural therapy in children with anxiety disorders.

Background: Anxiety disorders are common, and cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT) is a first-line treatment. Candidate gene studies have suggested a genetic basis to treatment response, but findings have been inconsistent.

Aims: To perform the first genome-wide association study (GWAS) of psychological treatment response in children with anxiety disorders (n = 980).

Advantages and limitations of web-based surveys: evidence from a child mental health survey.

Background: Web-based surveys may have advantages related to the speed and cost of data collection as well as data quality. However, they may be biased by low and selective participation. We predicted that such biases would distort point-estimates such as average symptom level or prevalence but not patterns of associations with putative risk-factors.

The Nordic advantage in child mental health: separating health differences from reporting style in a cross-cultural comparison of psychopathology.

Background: The use of similar standardised measures of psychopathology for population surveys permits cross-cultural comparisons. However, interpretation of findings can be challenging because rating thresholds may differ across cultures. By combining questionnaire and interview data, we explore whether lower questionnaire scores in Norway as compared to Britain reflect genuine differences in child mental health, or simply different reporting thresholds.

Psychiatric disorders in Norwegian 8- to 10-year-olds: an epidemiological survey of prevalence, risk factors, and service use.

Objective: The Bergen Child Study is a longitudinal study of child mental health from the city of Bergen, Norway. We present methods and results from the first wave of the study, focusing on prevalence of disorders, associations with risk factors, and the use of services.

Method: The target population included all 9,430 children attending grades 2 to 4 in Bergen schools during the academic year 2002/2003.

Planum temporale, planum parietale and dichotic listening in dyslexia.

A reduction or reversal of the normal leftward asymmetry of the planum temporale (PT) has been claimed to be typical of dyslexia, although some recent studies have challenged this view. In a population-based study of 20 right-handed dyslexic boys and 20 matched controls, we have measured the PT and the adjacent planum parietale (PP) region in sagittal magnetic resonance images. For the PT, mean left and right areas and asymmetry coefficients were compared.