Childhood Disorders Flashcards
(44 cards)
Stats and Trends of Childhood Disorders
- 20-40% have diagnosable disorder
- 80% needing services don’t receive them
- Historically received less attention in females, poor
Why Focus on Childhood Disorders?
- Longitudinal study taken by Kim-Cohen in 2003 over intervals
- Looking at if the age of first diagnosis provide context for their disorders later in life
- Found that of those cases, 50% had a childhood mental disorder, 11-15
- 60% in intensive mental health services had a childhood mental disorder
- Most adults have roots earlier in their life
The Dimensions of Childhood Disorders
Internalising - mostly affect the individual, child is overcontrolled
Externalising - mostly affect the people around them, child is undercontrolled
Internalising Disorders
anxiety disorders
- Separation anxiety disorder (most relevant to childhood)
- Selective mutism (most relevant to childhood)
- etc
Depressive Disorders
- Disruptive mood dysregulation disorder (most relevant to childhood)
- Identified as a precursor to MDD in adulthood
- Typically diagnosed between 6 and 10
- MDD and PDD
Externalising Disorders
Disruptive, impulse control, and conduct disorders
- Oppositional defiant disorder (most relevant to childhood)
- Conduct disorder (most relevant to childhood)
- Intermittent exclusive disorder
Neurodevelopmental Disorders
ADHD (most prevalent)
- 5% of all children
- Impulsive
- Inattention problems
Autism spectrum disorder (most prevalent) (ASD)
- Less common than a lot of disorders, 1.5% of the population
- Associated with quite profound deficits
- Struggle with social/emotional communication and non–verbal communication
Comorbidity with Childhood Disorders - Case Example
- Disruptive behaviour disorders are much more likely to be diagnosed alongside ADHD
- People with ASD are also likely to have a diagnosis of oppositional defiant disorder
Case Example -
- 5-year old boy
- Biting, hitting, defiant, oppositional, impulsive, overly active
What is Assessment?
→ psychological testing
Individualised
- Used to measure and observe client behaviour, to give full picture of strengths and limitations
- Used to test hypotheses about a patient
- Wide variety of tests and assessments
- Informs diagnosis and treatment planning
Assessment Methods for Children and Disorders
Clinical Interview - structured or semi-structured
- Developmental history
- Diagnostic interview
Psychological tests
- Self-report
- Rater measures
Behavioural observations
- A-b-c analysis
- Understanding of behaviour in clinic, home, school
Specialised testing
- IQ tests
- ASD, developmental delay
Third-party information
- medical/school/legal records
- Prior psychological testing/reports
Important Things to Consider When Assessing for Disorders in Children
Comprehensive assessment essential
- Gain knowledge about multiple settings
- Multi-reported
- Multi-method
- Relevant developmental information
For younger children, observation and rater measures especially important
Issues and Solutions When Determining What is Abnormal
- Rater based measures typically include a set of symptoms that don’t directly map onto DSM criteria
- So norms are used (normative cut-offs), a standard T-score would have a distribution with M=50, SD=10
- If a T-score is 65 then these symptoms may be considered rare to the population of children measured (normative sample)
Case Conceptualisation
a part of the assessment process
- developing theories for why these problems exist
Conduct Disorder
A repetitive and persistent pattern of behaviour involving (3 or more) for at least a year
- Aggression
- Destruction of property
- Deceitfulness/theft
- Serious violation of rules
Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD)
Pattern of angry/irritant mood, argumentative/defiant behaviour, or vindictiveness involving 4 or more
- Often loses temper
- Touchy, easily annoyed
- Angry, resentful
- Argumentative
- Defiant and noncompliant
- Deliberately annoys others
- Blames others for mistakes
- Spitefulness/ vindictiveness
the first three symptoms have a higher likelihood of getting an internalising disorders later in life
Why Focus on Conduct Disorder?
- Almost all adult disorders were preceded with ODD and conduct disorder
- Identified conduct disorder as a “prior prevention target” for reducing adult mental illness
50% of all cases with dsm diagnosis had conduct disorders
Prevalence of Conduct and ODD
- Estimates vary across setting, ethnic groups (systemic factors), age, gender, diagnostic
- 3-16% (worldwide - 3.3%) has ODD
CD 2-16% (3.2%)
DBD Comorbidity
- 65-90% also have ADHD
Internalising problems
~33% community
75% referred to clinic
Particularly for ODD
Consequence of behaviour
Learning disorders
Substance abuse disorders
Developmental Course of Conduct Problems
- Starts with arguing, defiance, noncompliance between 3-8
- Increases to aggression, bullying, truancy, theft, lying, property destruction between 8-17
- This is normally because the child has more capability of doing these things based on their responsibility, size etc
Antisocial Personality Disorder
- Large evidence of CD before 15
Pervasive pattern of disregard for/violation of others’ rights occurring since age 15 (3 or more):
- Repeated criminal behaviour
- Repeated lying or conning of others
- Impulsivity or poor planning
- Irritability and aggressive behaviour
- Reckless disregard for others’ safety
- Chronic irresponsibility
- Lack of remorse
Dispositional Risk Factors for Conduct Problems
(risks in the individual)
- Genetic
- Academic achievement
- Autonomic irregularities
- Premature birth
- Reward dominance
- Thrill seeking
- Cognitive biases
- And so on
Gerald Patterson’s Coercion Theory as a Cause of Conduct Disorder
Children with conduct disorders showed same behaviours as healthy kids but much more frequently
- They also were contingent on the parents behaviour, parents reinforced the child when they don’t necessarily discipline the child when they are told not to do something, the child knows that the more they complain the more they get
- Superparenting strategies
Example of Patterson’s Coercion Theory
Mum says no, child whines, mum folds, child is reinforced
Subtypes of Conduct Disorders
- Childhood-Onset Subtype (Life-Course Persistent)
- Adolescent-Onset Subtype
Dunedin Longitudinal Study Finding Trajectories of Conduct Problems
- Heterogeneity in developmental course
Found four common trajectories of conduct problems
- Childhood onset persistent
- Childhood limited
- Adolescent onset persistent
- Low / non problem
Risk Factors That Predicted assortment into these groups included;
Before the age of 10
- Dysfunctional parenting
- Parents with mental health problem
- Hyperactivity
- Low socioeconomic status
- had worst outcomes at this age group
After the age of 10
- Much more similar to the mean
- Only thing that differed is that they had more delinquent peers
- Moderate levels of criminal activity, substance abuse, physical health and economic problems