Introduction: Closed educational centres (CEC) receive young offenders who most often have a conduct disorder (CD). Mental disorders other than conduct disorder are a negative factor in the effect of educational actions. Moreover, adverse life experiences are frequent vulnerability factors in this population.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Previous studies have demonstrated that children who experience maltreatment show a more elevated risk of psychopathological disorders than children from the general population. The HPA (hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal) axis is not mature at birth and undergoes strong social regulation during the first years of life. Consequently, early exposure to stress could modify the usual adaptative response to stress.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFMany and diverse autoimmune abnormalities have been reported in children with autism. Natural autoantibodies (NAAbs) play important immunoregulatory roles in recognition of the immune self. The objective of this study was to examine the presence of NAAbs in the sera of children with autism and across severity subgroups of autistic behavioral impairments.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Self/other distinction (SOD), which refers to the ability to distinguish one's own body, actions, and mental representations from those of others, is an essential skill for effective social interaction. A large body of clinical evidence suggests that disruptions in SOD may be key to social communication deficits in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). In particular, egocentric biases have been found in cognitive, affective, behavioural, and motor domains.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: The sympathy-empathy (SE) system is commonly considered a key faculty implied in prosocial behaviors, and SE deficits (also called callous-unemotional traits, CUTs) are associated with nonprosocial and even violent behaviors. Thus, the first intuitive considerations considered a lack of SE among young people who undergo radicalization. Yet, their identification with a cause, their underlying feelings of injustice and grievance, and the other ways in which they may help communities, suggest that they may actually have a lot of empathy, even an excess of it.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAt the heart of the knotting of an addiction during the adolescent process is the possibility of conceptualizing the dynamics of an addictive behavior through the prism of attachment theory. From the inheritance of a family gift, through the coloring of attachment objects, to the adolescent oedipal reactivation, the addictive behavior finds a functional echo in compensation for an inaugural lack. This lack, this deficiency from an insecure family space, conditions the appearance of a symptomatic defense embodied by the dependent attachment to external objects.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAt the crossroads of a global pandemic, here and there where public discourse misuses the concepts of depression, research has begun on a public health issue, that of adolescent depression. The Adodesp study (adolescent depression associated with parental depression) aims to study the interest of a preventive identification of adolescent depression, based on that of parental figures, while evaluating the orientation towards a care system articulated between primary care and mental health devices. To date, this study has included 42 adolescents based on the identification of 30 depressed parents.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFSince 2010 and the founding of the Islamic State, the radicalisation phenomenon in Europe has involved more adolescents and converts to Islam than in previous Islamist terrorist group movements (e.g., Al-Qaeda).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe maison des adolescents scheme (mda), 20 years already! It was created because a lot of the existing programs dedicated to teenagers and their families were unrecognized and poorly articulated. In order to make them more identifiable, Claire Brisset, défenseure des enfants (child advocate), recommended the creation of a unique place inspired by the experience of a teenager's house opened in 1999 in Le Havre. Teenagers and their families could find information and support, have their situation evaluated, offer care and be referred to other professionals if necessary.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFRadicalization is a major issue in Western societies. Supposedly, there is no predefined pathway leading to radicalization. However, youth appears to be at risk for radicalization.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFObjective: Autism and certain associated behaviors including self-injurious behaviors (SIB) and atypical pain reactivity have been hypothesized to result from excessive opioid activity. The objective of this study was to examine the relationships between SIB, pain reactivity, and β-endorphin levels in autism.
Methods: Study participants were recruited between 2007 and 2012 from day care centers and included 74 children and adolescents diagnosed with autism (according to DSM-IV-TR, ICD-10, and CFTMEA) and intellectual disability.
Background: A new model of radicalisation has appeared in Western countries since the 2010s. Radical groups are smaller, less hierarchical and are mainly composed of young, homegrown individuals. The aim of this review is to decipher the profiles of the European adolescents and young adults who have embraced the cause of radical Islamism and to define the role of psychiatry in dealing with this issue.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFEarly child maltreatment has been widely associated with the development of mental disorders in both childhood and adulthood. However, such association cannot be systematically established, as only few factors are observed regularly, such as high prevalence of comorbidities and externalized disorders. Similarly, the association between early abuse and cortisol secretion anomalies has been well-documented.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIt remains unclear whether children and adolescents in the child welfare system (CWS) exhibit a higher prevalence of mental disorders compared with the general population. The objective of this study was to perform a systematic review and meta-analysis to assess the prevalence of mental disorders in the CWS.A ll of the epidemiological surveys assessing the prevalence of mental disorders in children and adolescents in the CWS were included.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Reports of higher stress responsivity, altered sleep-wake cycle and a melatonin deficit in autism have stimulated interest in the cortisol circadian rhythm in individuals with autism.
Methods: The study was conducted on 55 low-functioning children and adolescents with autism (11.3 ± 4.
Several studies support currently the hypothesis that autism etiology is based on a polygenic and epistatic model. However, despite advances in epidemiological, molecular and clinical genetics, the genetic risk factors remain difficult to identify, with the exception of a few chromosomal disorders and several single gene disorders associated with an increased risk for autism. Furthermore, several studies suggest a role of environmental factors in autism spectrum disorders (ASD).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFAbnormalities in melatonin physiology may be involved or closely linked to the pathophysiology and behavioral expression of autistic disorder, given its role in neurodevelopment and reports of sleep-wake rhythm disturbances, decreased nocturnal melatonin production, and beneficial therapeutic effects of melatonin in individuals with autism. In addition, melatonin, as a pineal gland hormone produced from serotonin, is of special interest in autistic disorder given reported alterations in central and peripheral serotonin neurobiology. More specifically, the role of melatonin in the ontogenetic establishment of circadian rhythms and the synchronization of peripheral oscillators opens interesting perspectives to ascertain better the mechanisms underlying the significant relationship found between lower nocturnal melatonin excretion and increased severity of autistic social communication impairments, especially for verbal communication and social imitative play.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe relationships between biological rhythms and human aggressive behavior are addressed and discussed in this article: First, circadian rhythms and aggression are considered. Studies of sleep/waking cycle disturbances in aggression are reported. Severe aggression is associated with profound changes in sleep architecture.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFHere, the quality of life (QoL) of adolescents living in residential group homes (RGHs), is compared to QoL of a general adolescent population, and links between QoL and the presence of mental disorders are examined. Adolescents living in RGHs reported a significantly lower perception of their overall QoL compared to the general adolescent population. The presence of mental disorders was significantly and negatively associated with QoL scores.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Several studies in animal models suggest a possible effect of the specific part of the Y-chromosome (Y(NPAR)) on brain opioid, and more specifically on brain β-endorphin (BE). In humans, male prevalence is found in autistic disorder in which observation of abnormal peripheral or central BE levels are also reported. This suggests gender differences in BE associated with genetic factors and more precisely with Y(NPAR).
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Parents, caregivers and mental health professionals have often reported violence and aggression in children or adolescents with autistic disorder. However, most of these observations derived from anecdotal reports, and studies on frequency and characterization of aggression in autism remain limited. Our objective was to better characterize and understand the different types of aggressive behaviors displayed by a large group of individuals with autism in different observational situations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe present study was designed to examine the reliability and validity of the Autism Psychodynamic Evaluation of Changes (APEC) scale, developed to assess the evolution in individuals with autism under treatment. The APEC scale focuses on the key role of impairment in body image construction, which requires cross-modal sensory integration through emotional communication with motor representations. Thus, the body image construction is associated simultaneously with spatial and temporal organization and allows the emergence of self- and others-representations.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBased on our findings showing that female adolescents in resident group homes exhibit externalized disorders at the same rate as male adolescents, explanatory hypotheses are developed from neuroscience (genetics and endocrinology) and from psychoanalysis (psychopathological and environmental approach). In particular, the place of the psychoanalytic approach in improving our understanding of such results is discussed with regard first to the clinical context and then to the research context. This article underlines that both approaches in psychoanalysis and neuroscience can, and maybe have to/should, coexist in child psychiatry.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Reports of reduced pain sensitivity in autism have prompted opioid theories of autism and have practical care ramifications. Our objective was to examine behavioral and physiological pain responses, plasma beta-endorphin levels and their relationship in a large group of individuals with autism.
Methodology/principal Findings: The study was conducted on 73 children and adolescents with autism and 115 normal individuals matched for age, sex and pubertal stage.