Behavioral outcome in children with a history of neonatal encephalopathy following perinatal asphyxia.

Objective: To examine the effects of mild and moderate neonatal encephalopathy (NE) on behavioral functioning, and prevalence of psychiatric diagnoses at 9-10 years.

Methods: The Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), Teacher's Report Form (TRF), Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children IV (DISC-IV), and the Children's Social Behavior Questionnaire (CSBQ) were used to assess behavioral outcome of 34 children with mild NE, 47 children with moderate NE, and 53 typically developing controls.

Results: Both children with mild and moderate NE showed more problematic behaviors than controls, which are related to a diversity of behavioral domains: elevated rates of social problems, anxiety and depression, attention regulation problems, and thought problems. No group differences were found in percentages of children with a DISC-IV (DSM-IV) classification.

Conclusions: NE has a mildly negative effect on behavioral functioning, but does not lead to elevated levels or specific patterns of developmental psychopathology.