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McDermott, John F.; Tseng, Wen-Shing ; Char, Walter F.; Fukunaga, Chantis S.
1978 Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry
There is currently a great demand for child psychiatrist to be involved in child custody decision making. Lack of adequate training and limited criteria which deal with measurable psychological tailors have made this a difficult problem for out field to meet. This paper describes a new assessment method, called the Patent-Child Interaction Test, for use by the child psychiatrist involved in child custody decisions. Experiences in its use by a family court are described. The historical development of custody criteria and an analysis of the working philosophy of a typical family court in custody cases is described, including criteria customarily considered and problems encountered in the decision-making process.
Rollins, Nancy ; Piazza, Eugene
1978 Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry
Diagnostic criteria for anorexia nervosa developed from our clinical experience are compared with those of two other groups, chosen as accepted and representative investigators. The three sets of criteria were applied to 30 successive patients admitted to the Psychosomatic Unit with the presumptive diagnosis of anorexia nervosa. Considerable variation was found in the percentage of patients diagnosed anorexia nervosa by each set of criteria. The discussion focuses on the inclusiveness of the three sets of criteria, anorexia nervosa as a developmental deviation of adolescence, and out concept of the essential psychopathology which differs from that of other investigators.
1978 Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry
The major types of psychopathology and behavioral deviancy observed in physically abused children during their participation in clinical research and treatment programs are described. Some of the more prominent areas of disturbance were: overall impairment of ego functioning, associated with intellectual and cognitive defects; traumatic reactions with acute anxiety stales; pathological object relationships characterized by the failure to develop “‘basic trust”; excessive use of primitive defenses such as denial, projection, introjection, and splitting; impaired impulse control; impaired self-concept; masochistic and self-destructive behavior; difficulties with separation, and problems in school adjustment.
1978 Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry
Depression in childhood remains a controversial issue in psychiatry. This paper reviews the present heterogeneous approach to defining depression in children and attempts a critical discussion of scales that have been proposed to diagnose depression and measure changes in its course. Scales which have statistically significant agreement with each other, and/or with the clinician's impression of depression are detailed; and those measuring related phenomena are presented. Directions for future research are also provided.
Berganza, Carlos E.; Anders, Thomas F.
1978 Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry
For pediatricians and family physicians who examine children with multiple physical complaints associated with school absenteeism, there ate few guidelines to aid in proper diagnosis and management. Clusters of demographic and psychosocial variables associated with patterns of absenteeism might differentiate subgroups of school avoidance, which would enhance diagnosis and disposition. In this study, we analyze the absentee rates of 1,088 seventh graders in the Palo Alto Unified School District. A high absentee group and a low absentee group are identified and traced backward to the first grade and forward to the eighth grade. Absentee patterns are analyzed. A methodology is applied which subdivides the groups into further potential categories of risk.
1978 Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry
Timing and sequencing of acquisition of developmental capabilities are important issues in view of the growing interest in early developmental evaluations and interventions. Background factors are (1) continuity versus discontinuity of development; (2) the extensive variability of normal individual development; (3) prognostic significance of suboptimal test performance; (4) alternative pathways of mental development demonstrated by physically handicapped children. This last point is explored in detail by means of data from a study of children with defects due to congenital rubella.
1978 Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry
Family-made home movies of the infamies of 10 children suffering from an early childhood psychosis were studied as a kind of prospective documentation of their earliest months of life. Brief case histories are given along with the findings from the detailed analysis of the infancy movies. The movies provide data about the constitutional qualities of the children, neuromuscular pathology, initial signs of psychosis, and maternal-infant interaction. The focus is on the patterns and presence or absence of the infant's attachment to the mother and the mother's to the infant via eye gaze, holding, touching, feeding, and smiling from the first weeks of life. The finding of disturbances in attachment—sometimes on the infant's part and sometimes on the parent's part—suggests a connection with subsequent psychopathology.
Shapiro, Theodore ; Burkes, Lynn ; Petti, Theodore A.; Ranz, Jules
1978 Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry
Controversy exists in the neuropsychiatric literature regarding “soft” or “nonfocal” neurological signs and their significance. The consistency o f such signs over time in children hospitalized on a psychiatric unit was studied and replicated. Each child was tested on three different occasions dining the first 8 days of hospitalization. The Cochran Q analysis of variance demonstrated general consistency of “nonfocal” neurological signs. The greatest inconsistency was found in the most immature and neuropsychiatrically impaired subjects. This report presents new data to support the continued use of “nonfocal” neurological signs in combination with a clinical examination in the psychiatric evaluation of children.
1978 Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry
King's (1975) double-bind theory of infantile autism requires greater clarity and specificity for scientific validation. Research failed to control for observer bias and did not provide adequate evidence.
1978 Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry
The kind of changes that have appeared in adolescent rebellion phenomena in the kibbutz these past 10 years ate discussed from the sociocultural viewpoint. The frequency and expressions of the rebellion are conceived as connected closely with the interpersonal, family, social, and cultural context in which the adolescent exists. The increase of adolescent rebellion in the kibbutz seems to have occulted concurrently with the changes that have taken place in the surrounding environment making the system of values and norms in the life of the commune less clear and less valid. These changes have turned the adult society into a more ambiguous identification model than it was prior to the early 1960s.
Carlson, Gabrielle A.; Strober, Michael
1978 Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry
The clinical phenomenology and course of illness was studied retrospectively in six cases with onset of bipolar manic-depressive illness in early adolescence. Despite original chart diagnoses of schizophrenia in all cases, systematic evaluation of case-record data indicated that diagnostic manifestations of affective disorder were identifiable even at the onset of illness. A brief review of the literature on psychosis in adolescence is presented and we discuss several factors contributing to diagnostic error in these cases.
Tronick, Edward ; Als, Heidelise ; Adamson, Lauren ; Wise, Susan ; Brazelton, T. Berry
1978 Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry
The normal feedback infants receive from their mothers in face-to-face interaction was distorted by having the mothers face their infants but remain facially unresponsive. The infants studied reacted with intense wariness and eventual withdrawal, demonstrating the importance of interactional reciprocity and the ability of infants to regulate their emotional displays.
Saraf, Kishore R.; Klein, Donald F.; Gittelman-Klein, Rachel ; Gootman, Norman ; Greenhill, Philip
1978 Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry
Their are increasing reports of serious side effects in children with clinical use of imipramine in high doses. Our analysis of the EKG effects of imipramine in 25 hyperactive and 8 school phobic children suggests that children on a dose of imipramine of 3.5 mg/kg or more are likely to show an increase in PR interval of .02 seconds or more and that such increases are more likely to occur in patients with a small pretreatment PR interval. In 7 children the PR interval prolongation was above the rate-corrected norm. EKG monitoring seems desirable in children maintained on imipramine dose of 3.5 mg/kg or more.
Campbell, Magda ; Hardesty, Anne S.; Breuer, Harry ; Polevoy, Nancy
1978 Journal of the American Academy of Child Psychiatry
This pilot study of 10 subjects showing manifestations of illness in infancy and diagnosed as psychotic between 2:1 to 6:8 years is a report on their revaluation 3:6 to 12 years later. Multiple behavioral assessments by independent raters and psychological testings were carried out on follow-up, revealing a shift in the distribution of symptoms and a relatively stable IQ. Those who initially had some verbal skills and were able to perform at higher intellectual levels had better future prospects. The results indicate that the form of behavioral pathology depends on the organizational-maturational level each individual has reached.