Quantifying free behaviour in an open field using k-motif approach.

Quantification and parametrisation of movement are widely used in animal behavioural paradigms. In particular, free movement in controlled conditions (e.g.

Effects of Discontinuing Methylphenidate on Strengths and Difficulties, Quality of Life and Parenting Stress.

To study the effects of discontinuation of long-term methylphenidate use on secondary outcome measures of strengths and difficulties, quality of life (QoL), and parenting stress. Ninety-four children and adolescents aged 8 to 18 years who had used methylphenidate for over 2 years were randomly assigned to double-blind continuation of treatment for 7 weeks (36 or 54 mg extended release methylphenidate) or to gradual withdrawal over 3 to 4 weeks placebo. We used mixed models for repeated measures to investigate effects on parent, teacher, and child ratings of hyperactivity/inattention and comorbid symptoms with the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), investigator- and teacher-rated oppositional symptoms (Conners Teacher Rating Scale-Revised: short form [CTRS-R:S]), and parent-rated aggression with the Retrospective Modified Overt Aggression Scale.

Intensive home treatment for adolescents in psychiatric crisis.

Background: Adolescents with acute psychiatric disorders are typically treated with long-term clinical admission. However, long term admission may be associated with a variety of negative outcomes. This pilot study presents a new model of care, that is, the combined application of intensive home treatment and the possibility of short term stay at a psychiatric high & intensive care.

Publisher Correction: Common brain disorders are associated with heritable patterns of apparent aging of the brain.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Annual variation in attentional response after methylphenidate treatment.

Prevalence rates of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) differ with geographical areas varying in sunlight intensity. Sun- or daylight reaching the retina establishes entrainment of the circadian clock to daylight. Changes herein, hence, alterations in clock alignment, could be reflected indirectly in inattention via sleep duration.

Nutritional psychiatry: Towards improving mental health by what you eat.

Does it matter what we eat for our mental health? Accumulating data suggests that this may indeed be the case and that diet and nutrition are not only critical for human physiology and body composition, but also have significant effects on mood and mental wellbeing. While the determining factors of mental health are complex, increasing evidence indicates a strong association between a poor diet and the exacerbation of mood disorders, including anxiety and depression, as well as other neuropsychiatric conditions. There are common beliefs about the health effects of certain foods that are not supported by solid evidence and the scientific evidence demonstrating the unequivocal link between nutrition and mental health is only beginning to emerge.

Does Co-Occurring Anxiety Modulate ADHD-Related Cognitive and Neurophysiological Impairments?

This study investigates whether anxiety modulates cognitive-performance, electrophysiological and electrodermal processes that we previously found impaired in individuals with ADHD. Self-reported anxiety symptoms, cognitive-electrophysiological measures of response inhibition, working memory, attention, conflict monitoring, error processing, and peripheral arousal during three cognitive tasks were obtained from 87 adolescents and young adults with ADHD and 169 controls. We tested the association of anxiety symptoms with each measure and whether controlling for anxiety symptoms attenuates the ADHD-control difference for each measure.

Methylphenidate Dose-Dependently Affects Aggression and Improves Fear Extinction and Anxiety in BALB/cJ Mice.

Overt aggression, increased anxiety, and dysfunctional fear processing are often observed in individuals with conduct disorder (CD) and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Methylphenidate (MPH), a psychostimulant increasing dopamine and noradrenaline tone, is effective in reducing aggression in both CD and ADHD individuals. However, it is unclear to which extent these effects of MPH are dose dependent.

Altered structural brain asymmetry in autism spectrum disorder in a study of 54 datasets.

Altered structural brain asymmetry in autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has been reported. However, findings have been inconsistent, likely due to limited sample sizes. Here we investigated 1,774 individuals with ASD and 1,809 controls, from 54 independent data sets of the ENIGMA consortium.

Increasing robustness of pairwise methods for effective connectivity in magnetic resonance imaging by using fractional moment series of BOLD signal distributions.

Estimating causal interactions in the brain from functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data remains a challenging task. Multiple studies have demonstrated that all current approaches to determine direction of connectivity perform poorly when applied to synthetic fMRI datasets. Recent advances in this field include methods for pairwise inference, which involve creating a sparse connectome in the first step, and then using a classifier in order to determine the directionality of connection between every pair of nodes in the second step.

ADHD symptoms across adolescence: the role of the family and school climate and the DRD4 and 5-HTTLPR genotype.

We examined bidirectional relations between attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) symptoms and family and school climate, and the possible role of DRD4 and/or 5-HTTLPR genotypes herein. Three-wave longitudinal data of 1860 adolescents (mean ages 11, 13.5, and 16 years) from the general population and clinic-referred cohort of TRacking Adolescents' Individual Lives Survey were used.

Modulation of cognitive flexibility by reward and punishment in BALB/cJ and BALB/cByJ mice.

Learning from feedback is one of the key mechanisms within cognitive flexibility, which is needed to react swiftly to constantly changing environments. The motivation to change behavior is highly dependent on the expectancy of positive (reward) or negative (punishment) feedback. Individuals with conduct disorder (CD) with high callous unemotional traits show decreased sensitivity to negative feedback and increased reward seeking.

Distinct associations between fronto-striatal glutamate concentrations and callous-unemotional traits and proactive aggression in disruptive behavior.

Disruptive behavior is associated with societally and personally problematic levels of aggression and has been linked to abnormal structure and function of fronto-amygdala-striatal regions. Abnormal glutamatergic signalling within this network may play a role in aggression. However, disruptive behavior does not represent a homogeneous construct, but can be fractionated across several dimensions.

The Impact of ADHD Treatment on Intimate Partner Violence in a Forensic Psychiatry Setting.

The current longitudinal impact of treatment of ADHD on intimate partner violence (ITAP) study aims to investigate whether decrease of ADHD symptoms is associated with reduction of intimate partner violence (IPV) frequency in IPV offenders with ADHD in a forensic psychiatry setting. Of = 209 offenders of IPV with ADHD, frequency of IPV and ADHD symptoms were assessed at the 8th, 16th, 24th, and 52nd weeks of their combined treatment for ADHD and IPV. We observed a significant decrease of self-reported ADHD symptoms (large effect size, ≥ 0.

Identification of neurobehavioural symptom groups based on shared brain mechanisms.

Most psychopathological disorders develop in adolescence. The biological basis for this development is poorly understood. To enhance diagnostic characterization and develop improved targeted interventions, it is critical to identify behavioural symptom groups that share neural substrates.

Factors related to parental pre-treatment motivation in outpatient child and adolescent mental health care.

The aim of this study was to investigate the relation between a variety of child, parent, family and environmental factors and pre-treatment motivation of parents of children and adolescents newly referred to a mental health care clinic in The Netherlands. Data were collected of 521 parents most involved in the upbringing of the child (443 mothers and 78 fathers; Dutch origin 97.1%) of 207 girls and 314 boys (age M = 10.

Common brain disorders are associated with heritable patterns of apparent aging of the brain.

Common risk factors for psychiatric and other brain disorders are likely to converge on biological pathways influencing the development and maintenance of brain structure and function across life. Using structural MRI data from 45,615 individuals aged 3-96 years, we demonstrate distinct patterns of apparent brain aging in several brain disorders and reveal genetic pleiotropy between apparent brain aging in healthy individuals and common brain disorders.

Neural reward processing in paediatric Tourette syndrome and/or attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is the most common comorbidity in individuals with Tourette syndrome (TS). Yet, it is unclear to what extent TS and ADHD show overlapping or distinct neural abnormalities. ADHD has been associated with altered reward processing, but there are very few studies on reward processing in TS.

Maladaptive Aggression: With a Focus on Impulsive Aggression in Children and Adolescents.

Aggressive behavior is among the most common reasons for referral to psychiatric clinics and confers significant burden on individuals. Aggression remains poorly defined; there is currently no consensus on the best ways to recognize, diagnose, and treat aggression in clinical settings. In this review, we synthesize the available literature on aggression in children and adolescents and propose the concept of impulsive aggression (IA) as an important construct associated with diverse and enduring psychopathology.

ADHD symptoms in the adult general population are associated with factors linked to ADHD in adult patients.

Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder in children and adults. It is characterized by inappropriate levels of inattention (IA) and/or hyperactivity and impulsivity (HI). The ADHD diagnosis is hypothesized to represent the extreme of a continuous distribution of ADHD symptoms in the general population.

From pattern classification to stratification: towards conceptualizing the heterogeneity of Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Pattern classification and stratification approaches have increasingly been used in research on Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) over the last ten years with the goal of translation towards clinical applicability. Here, we present an extensive scoping literature review on those two approaches. We screened a total of 635 studies, of which 57 pattern classification and 19 stratification studies were included.