Implementing Adolescent Screening, Brief Intervention, and Referral to Treatment (SBIRT) Education in a Pediatric Residency Curriculum.

Background: Screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment (SBIRT) is recommended as part of routine health care for adolescents as well as adults. In an effort to promote universal SBIRT, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration awarded funding to residency programs to develop and implement SBIRT education and training. Our project focused on creating scientifically based, developmentally appropriate strategies and teaching materials for the adolescent age range.

Comparing stimulant effects in youth with ADHD symptoms and epilepsy.

To retrospectively examine response to stimulant treatment in patients with epilepsy and ADHD symptoms as predicted by seizure freedom for six months, use of methylphenidate (MPH) versus amphetamine (AMP) preparations, cognitive level, and medical records were searched for patients under the age of 18 with epilepsy and ADHD symptoms treated with MPH or AMP (n=36, age=10.4 ± 3.5; male=67%).

Promoting scholarship during child and adolescent psychiatry residency.

Background: In 2003, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) drew attention to the critical national shortage of psychiatrist-researchers and the need for competency-based curricula to promote research training during psychiatry residency as one way to address this shortage at the institutional level. Here, the authors report on the adaptation, implementation, and results attained with a broadly applicable, developmental, competency-based framework for promoting scholarship during child and adolescent psychiatry residency.

Methods: The authors instituted structural program changes, protecting time for all residents to engage in scholarly pursuits and a mentorship program to support residents in their scholarly interests.

Prenatal cigarette exposure and infant learning stimulation as predictors of cognitive control in childhood.

Prenatal exposures to neurotoxins and postnatal parenting practices have been shown to independently predict variations in the cognitive development and emotional-behavioral well-being of infants and children. We examined the independent contributions of prenatal cigarette exposure and infant learning stimulation, as well as their inter-relationships in predicting variations in the proficiency of executive attention, a core element of cognitive control and self-regulation. Participants were an ethnic-racially, socio-economically diverse sample of 249 children followed from birth in the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods.

A competency-based model for research training during psychiatry residency.

The Institute of Medicine recently identified a critical shortage of psychiatrist-researchers and highlighted the need for competency-based curricula that promote research training during psychiatry residency as a way to address that shortage. In this article we review extant approaches to research training during psychiatry residency. We then identify five core elements necessary for promoting research training: (1) mentoring, (2) education, (3) experience, (4) time, and (5) support.

Self-regulation and its relations to adaptive functioning in low income youths.

Most studies of self-regulation involving children have linked it to specific outcomes within a single domain of adaptive functioning. The authors examined the association of self-regulation with a range of indices of adaptive functioning among 155 youth ages 8-18 years from families with very low income. Controlling for other explanatory variables, self-regulation was strongly associated with various outcome measures in the areas of mental health, behavior, academic achievement, and social competence.

A comparison of divalproex and oxcarbazepine in aggressive youth with bipolar disorder.

Background: Divalproex (DVP) and oxcarbazepine (OXC) are used to treat pediatric bipolar disorder (PBPD) with severe aggression but these agents have not been compared in head to head trials.

Methods: Electronic medical records were reviewed for those (age < 18) who received DVP (n = 20) or OXC (n = 11) for the treatment of PBPD with severe aggression. Change in prospectively rated Clinical Global Impressions-Severity (CGI-S) scores that measured global improvement of mental illness from baseline and rates of discontinuation due to adverse effects at approximately 4 months were the primary outcomes.

Alerting, orienting, and executive attention: developmental properties and sociodemographic correlates in an epidemiological sample of young, urban children.

A computerized test of preparedness for effortful processing (alerting attention), response to orienting cues (orienting attention), and response to the interference of competing demands (executive attention) was administered to a diverse sample of 249 children (47% female, 4.96 to 7.27 years) to assess developmental properties and sociodemographic correlates of task performance.

Retrospective study of hepatic enzyme elevations in children treated with olanzapine, divalproex, and their combination.

Objective: To evaluate hepatic enzyme elevations during treatment with olanzapine, divalproex, and their combination.

Method: Fifty-two children, aged 4 to 18 years, with hepatic enzyme levels measured during treatment with olanzapine (n = 17), divalproex (n = 23), or their combination (n = 12), were identified in the computerized records at a pediatric medical center. Clinical characteristics as well as serial alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, and lactate dehydrogenase levels were collected.

Characteristics of resilient youths living in poverty: the role of self-regulatory processes.

As part of a larger investigation of very low income families, this study examined the characteristics that differentiated resilient from nonresilient school-age youths, with a focus on self-regulation (e.g., executive function, emotion regulation) skills.