[The Zurich Specialist Clinic for Adolescent with Gender Dysphoria - Preliminary Follow-up Results].

The specialist clinic for children and adolescents with gender dysphoria (GD) of the Psychiatric University Hospital of Zurich shows an increasing number of referrals since its foundation in 2009. Since 2014 we started an observational study including adolescents aged 13 years and older. At the time of the first appointment (T0) N = 77 participants completed a battery of questionnaires assessing demographic factors, general psychopathology, quality of life as well as gender identity, social transitioning and GD treatment modalities.

European Multicentre Tics in Children Studies (EMTICS): protocol for two cohort studies to assess risk factors for tic onset and exacerbation in children and adolescents.

Genetic predisposition, autoimmunity and environmental factors [e.g. pre- and perinatal difficulties, Group A Streptococcal (GAS) and other infections, stress-inducing events] might interact to create a neurobiological vulnerability to the development of tics and associated behaviours.

Psychological functioning in adolescents referred to specialist gender identity clinics across Europe: a clinical comparison study between four clinics.

Adolescents seeking professional help with their gender identity development often present with psychological difficulties. Existing literature on psychological functioning of gender diverse young people is limited and mostly bound to national chart reviews. This study examined the prevalence of psychological functioning and peer relationship problems in adolescents across four European specialist gender services (The Netherlands, Belgium, the UK, and Switzerland), using the Child Behavioural Checklist (CBCL) and the Youth Self-Report (YSR).

High resolution chromosomal microarray analysis in paediatric obsessive-compulsive disorder.

Background: Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) is a common and chronic disorder in which a person has uncontrollable, reoccurring thoughts and behaviours. It is a complex genetic condition and, in case of early onset (EO), the patients manifest a more severe phenotype, and an increased heritability. Large (>500 kb) copy number variations (CNVs) previously associated with autism and schizophrenia have been reported in OCD.

Combining genetic and epigenetic parameters of the serotonin transporter gene in obsessive-compulsive disorder.

While genetic variants have been reported to be associated with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), the small effect sizes suggest that epigenetic mechanisms such as DNA methylation may also be relevant. The serotonin transporter (SLC6A4) gene has been extensively investigated in relation to OCD, since serotonin reuptake inhibitors are the pharmacological treatment of choice for the disorder. The current study set three questions: Firstly, whether the high expressing loci of the SLC6A4 polymorphisms, 5-HTTLPR + rs25531, rs25532 and rs16965628 are associated with family-based (n = 164 trios) and case-control OCD (n = 186, 152, respectively).

Age-dependent and -independent changes in attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) during spatial working memory performance.

Objectives: Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has been associated with spatial working memory as well as frontostriatal core deficits. However, it is still unclear how the link between these frontostriatal deficits and working memory function in ADHD differs in children and adults. This study examined spatial working memory in adults and children with ADHD, focussing on identifying regions demonstrating age-invariant or age-dependent abnormalities.

Classifying adolescent attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) based on functional and structural imaging.

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a common disabling psychiatric disorder associated with consistent deficits in error processing, inhibition and regionally decreased grey matter volumes. The diagnosis is based on clinical presentation, interviews and questionnaires, which are to some degree subjective and would benefit from verification through biomarkers. Here, pattern recognition of multiple discriminative functional and structural brain patterns was applied to classify adolescents with ADHD and controls.

Role of the medial prefrontal cortex in impaired decision making in juvenile attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Importance: Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) has been associated with deficient decision making and learning. Models of ADHD have suggested that these deficits could be caused by impaired reward prediction errors (RPEs). Reward prediction errors are signals that indicate violations of expectations and are known to be encoded by the dopaminergic system.

Pervasive refusal syndrome. Three German cases provide further illustration.

Pervasive refusal syndrome (PRS) has been proposed as a new diagnostic entity among child and adolescent psychiatric disorders. It is characterized by a cluster of life-threatening symptoms including refusal of hood intake, decreased or complete lack of mobilization, and lack of communication as well as retreat from normal life activities. Active refusal to accept help as well as neglect of personal care have been core features of PRS in the limited number of cases reported in the last decade.

Developmental changes in coping: situational and methodological influences.

Previous studies on the development of coping have shown rather inconsistent findings regarding the developmental trajectories for different coping dimensions. The aim of this study is to search for possible influences that might explain these inconsistencies. The analysis focuses on methodological influences (longitudinal vs.

Contingency experiences of 3-month-old children and their relation to later developmental achievements.

In this study, the authors investigated the relation between early social contingency experiences and infants' competencies to detect nonsocial contingencies. In this study of 87 three-month-old infants, the authors operationalized early social contingencies as prompt, contingent maternal responses and coded microanalytically on the basis of video-recorded mother-infant interactions. The authors assessed competence to detect nonsocial contingencies by 2 methods: (a) the mobile conjugate reinforcement paradigm, which focuses on detecting contingencies between the infants' actions (kicking) and nonsocial consequences (mobile moving) and (b) the visual expectation paradigm, which focuses on detecting contingencies between 1 event (a smiley face projected on a screen) that was followed by a 2nd event (a complex picture projected on the other side of the screen).

The prediction of health-related behaviour in elementary school children.

This study investigates the importance of psychological concepts with regard to health-related behaviour in elementary school children based on self-report data of 802 second- and fourth-graders. The results show significant relations of self-efficacy and the choice of appropriate coping strategies to positive health-related behaviours. The amount of stress experiences (measured by the Youth Self-Report) is associated to health-risky behaviours for the total sample and for the gender subgroups, while the other predictor variables show inconsistent relations for different subgroups.

Warmth and contingency and their relationship to maternal attitudes toward parenting.

In this study, the authors addressed the question of whether maternal parenting behaviors in terms of sensitivity, warmth, and contingency with respect to small infants were equally represented in attitudes toward parenting. Sixty mothers from central Germany with middle-class socioeconomic backgrounds were videotaped with their 1st born 3-month-old infant in a free-play and a caregiving episode in their home. The different maternal parenting components were behaviorally analyzed.