Emotional Disturbance (emotional + disturbance)

Distribution by Scientific Domains


Selected Abstracts


Social maladjustment and students with behavioral and emotional disorders: Revisiting basic assumptions and assessment issues

PSYCHOLOGY IN THE SCHOOLS, Issue 8 2004
Daniel Olympia
While much of the current focus in special education remains on reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Act of 1997, disparities in the identification of children with serious emotional disorders continue to plague special educators and school psychologists. Several years after the issue of social maladjustment and its relationship to serious emotional disturbance was discussed and debated, little appears to have changed. Children, adolescents, and families are subjected to widely varying philosophies, assessment procedures, and services based on questionable criteria used to determine whether a student "qualifies" for services under the Serious Emotional Disturbance (SED) designation. In this paper, we address how this issue has significantly affected access to services for students with serious emotional disturbances. Faulty assumptions regarding the relationship of social maladjustment to emotional disturbance in children/adolescents are identified and the implications of these assumptions for children are described. The lack of research supporting specific tools developed to assess social maladjustment in the context of a serious emotional disorder and the impact of this current practice on children is addressed from a practical and ethical standpoint. The role of the school psychologist as gatekeeper is contrasted to that of the more positive role as facilitator. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 41: 835,847, 2004. [source]


Memory, Emotional and Vocational Impairments before and after Anterior Temporal Lobectomy for Complex Partial Seizures

EPILEPSIA, Issue 11 2006
Mario F. Dulay
Summary:,Purpose: To assess the pre- and postsurgical frequency of memory, emotional, and vocational impairments in patients who underwent anterior temporal lobectomy (ATL), and to assess the relationship between emotional disturbance and memory abilities after ATL. Methods: Retrospective analysis of data was performed on 90 patients with medically intractable complex partial seizures who underwent ATL between 1981 and 2003. Patients were evaluated an average of 5 months before surgery and 11.3 months after surgery. Results: A moderate to high frequency of memory impairment (44.4%; verbal or nonverbal), emotional disturbance (38.9%) and unemployment (27.8%) existed in the same individuals both before and after surgery. There were small to moderate rates of new onset memory (18.9%), emotional (11.1%), and vocational (7.8%) difficulties after surgery often regardless of seizure control outcome. Patients who underwent left-ATL and had emotional disturbance after surgery had the lowest verbal memory test scores. Conclusions: Results highlight the importance of taking into account emotional status when assessing memory abilities after ATL. Results replicate the finding of moderate to high frequencies of memory impairment, emotional disturbance, and unemployment both before and after ATL. Results provide support for the rationale that cognitive, psychiatric and vocational interventions are indicated to mitigate the problems that exist before and persist after ATL. [source]


Teenage drinking and the onset of alcohol dependence: a cohort study over seven years

ADDICTION, Issue 12 2004
Yvonne A. Bonomo
ABSTRACT Aim To determine whether adolescent alcohol use and/or other adolescent health risk behaviour predisposes to alcohol dependence in young adulthood. Design Seven-wave cohort study over 6 years. Participant A community sample of almost two thousand individuals followed from ages 14,15 to 20,21 years. Outcome measure Diagnostic and Statistical Manual volume IV (DSM-IV) alcohol dependence in participants aged 20,21 years and drinking three or more times a week. Findings Approximately 90% of participants consumed alcohol by age 20 years, 4.7% fulfilling DSM-IV alcohol dependence criteria. Alcohol dependence in young adults was preceded by higher persisting teenage rates of frequent drinking [odds ratio (OR) 8.1, 95% confidence interval (CI) 4.2, 16], binge drinking (OR 6.7, 95% CI 3.6, 12), alcohol-related injuries (OR 4.5 95% CI 1.9, 11), intense drinking (OR 4.8, 95% CI 2.6, 8.7), high dose tobacco use (OR 5.5, 95% CI 2.3, 13) and antisocial behaviour (OR 5.9, 95% CI 3.3, 11). After adjustment for other teenage predictors frequent drinking (OR 3.1, 95% CI 1.2, 7.7) and antisocial behaviour (OR 2.4, 95% CI 1.2, 5.1) held persisting independent associations with later alcohol dependence. There were no prospective associations found with emotional disturbance in adolescence. Conclusion Teenage drinking patterns and other health risk behaviours in adolescence predicted alcohol dependence in adulthood. Prevention and early intervention initiatives to reduce longer-term alcohol-related harm therefore need to address the factors, including alcohol supply, that influence teenage consumption and in particular high-risk drinking patterns. [source]


Improving the K6 short scale to predict serious emotional disturbance in adolescents in the USA

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF METHODS IN PSYCHIATRIC RESEARCH, Issue S1 2010
Jennifer Greif Green
Abstract Effective screening for emotional and behavioral disorders among youth requires brief screening scales with good validity to identify youth requiring further evaluation and to estimate prevalence of target disorders in populations of interest such as schools or neighborhoods. This paper examines the psychometric properties of a very short (six-item) screening scale, the K6, to assess serious emotional disturbance (SED) among youth. The K6, which is made up of symptoms of depression and anxiety, has been shown in previous research to be a strong predictor of serious mental illness (SMI) in adults, but no information is available on the ability of the scale to screen for SED among youth. The current report examines the K6 as a screen for SED in a national survey of US adolescents, the National Comorbidity Survey Replication Adolescent Supplement (NCS-A). The K6 is shown to provide fairly good prediction of SED [area under curve (AUC) = 0.74] that is somewhat higher for internalizing (AUC = 0.80) than behavior (AUC = 0.75) disorders. Based on this result, we augmented the K6 with questions about symptoms of behavior disorders. This improved prediction of SED (from AUC = 0.74 to AUC = 0.83) as well as of SED associated with pure behavior disorders (from AUC = 0.53 to AUC = 0.78). These results show that although the symptoms of depression and anxiety in the K6 are sufficient to detect SMI among adults, high rates of behavior disorders among adolescents require indicators of behavior disorders to be added to the K6 to screen adequately for adolescent SED. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Observer variance within families: confluence among maternal, paternal and child ratings

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF METHODS IN PSYCHIATRIC RESEARCH, Issue 1 2001
Dr Anne I.H. Borge
Abstract This paper examines patterns of agreement among different informants within the same family in order to determine the effects of maternal distress on the ratings of mothers and fathers. Mothers, fathers and children from a community cohort of 216 families with 13 to 15 years olds reported children's difficulties and strengths measured by the Rutter Revised Scale. The absolute scores on the children's ratings were higher than those of the fathers and mothers. The odds ratios for agreements between fathers and children ranged between 1.70 and 4.01 and for mother-child agreement between 0.83 and 3.40. There were no significant differences between the mothers and fathers in the extent of their agreement with their children. When mothers were emotionally distressed, there was a significantly higher level of emotional disturbance in the children according to the ratings of both mothers and fathers, but not according to children's ratings. There is value in obtaining paternal, as well as maternal and child, ratings of children's behaviour. Maternal distress affects the ratings of both parents, but not those of the children; the reasons for these effects require further study but they cannot be assumed to reflect rating bias. Copyright © 2001 Whurr Publishers Ltd. [source]


Clinical profiles of autopsy-confirmed dementia with Lewy bodies at institutionalization: Comparison with Alzheimer's disease

PSYCHOGERIATRICS, Issue 3 2007
Hiroshige FUJISHIRO
Abstract Background:, It has been reported that Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients with Lewy pathology have a shorter time from a given baseline to institutionalization than those with AD alone. Taking the clinical distinction between dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and AD into consideration, the previous findings may indicate the possibility that the clinical characteristics of DLB patients have an influence on early institutionalization. This study was carried out to clarify whether there are any differences in the symptoms that required institutionalization between patients with DLB and those with AD. Methods:, Hospital records and standardized data forms completed at admission to a residential care facility were reviewed to assess the profiles in all cases with autopsy-confirmed diagnoses for correct differential diagnosis. We examined functional, cognitive and symptomatic conditions at admission to a residential care facility of 18 DLB and 35 AD patients whose diagnoses were confirmed by autopsy. The examinations were conducted using the Gottfries-Brĺne-Steen (GBS) scale and cognitive tests, and the results were compared between the two groups of patients. Results:, Hallucinations, impaired wakefulness, disturbance of ADL and emotional disturbance, common clinical features compatible with DLB, were more frequently observed in DLB patients than in AD patients (P < 0.05). Moreover, DLB patients had higher scores on cognitive tests than did AD patients at admission to a residential care facility (P < 0.05). Conclusion:, The distinctive clinical features at admission to a residential care facility may indicate that the reasons for the necessity of institutionalization are different between DLB and AD, and that the interventions specific to DLB patients and their families would be necessary to prevent or postpone institutionalization. [source]


School-based prevention and intervention programs for children with emotional disturbance: A review of treatment components and methodology

PSYCHOLOGY IN THE SCHOOLS, Issue 2 2009
Linda A. Reddy
School practitioners and educators are frequently challenged by the diverse and pervasive academic, social, and behavioral needs of children at risk for and with emotional disturbance. The present article examines the outcome literature on school-based prevention and intervention programs by systematically reviewing the key treatment interventions and methodology used. A total of 29 investigations including 1,405 children and adolescents were reviewed and coded on 41 variables across three dimensions (i.e., sample characteristics, treatment components, and methodology). Single subject and group design studies were included. Behavioral and/or cognitive behavioral treatment approaches were primary used. Deficit-based assessment and treatment approaches (i.e., problem behaviors) were predominately used in the outcome literature with few investigations incorporating strength-based outcome approaches. Findings are discussed in relation to previous research. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source]


Social maladjustment and students with behavioral and emotional disorders: Revisiting basic assumptions and assessment issues

PSYCHOLOGY IN THE SCHOOLS, Issue 8 2004
Daniel Olympia
While much of the current focus in special education remains on reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Act of 1997, disparities in the identification of children with serious emotional disorders continue to plague special educators and school psychologists. Several years after the issue of social maladjustment and its relationship to serious emotional disturbance was discussed and debated, little appears to have changed. Children, adolescents, and families are subjected to widely varying philosophies, assessment procedures, and services based on questionable criteria used to determine whether a student "qualifies" for services under the Serious Emotional Disturbance (SED) designation. In this paper, we address how this issue has significantly affected access to services for students with serious emotional disturbances. Faulty assumptions regarding the relationship of social maladjustment to emotional disturbance in children/adolescents are identified and the implications of these assumptions for children are described. The lack of research supporting specific tools developed to assess social maladjustment in the context of a serious emotional disorder and the impact of this current practice on children is addressed from a practical and ethical standpoint. The role of the school psychologist as gatekeeper is contrasted to that of the more positive role as facilitator. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 41: 835,847, 2004. [source]


Gender disparities in mental health service use of Puerto Rican children and adolescents

THE JOURNAL OF CHILD PSYCHOLOGY AND PSYCHIATRY AND ALLIED DISCIPLINES, Issue 8 2006
José J. Cabiya
Background:, Differences in service utilization indicating that boys use more mental health services than girls were analyzed to see if they could be explained by known correlates of service use. These correlates were arranged into individual (severe emotional disturbance, level of impairment and externalizing disorders), family (parental education, psychopathology and parental concern) and school factors (difficulties with school work). The objectives were to understand and identify the factors accounting for gender differences in mental health service utilization in order to develop alternatives to promote equity in service delivery. Methods:, A representative sample of 1,896 children 4 to 17 years of age and their primary caretakers were interviewed for this study. Reports of service use were obtained using the Service Assessment for Children and Adolescents. Logistic regression was used to assess the relationship between gender and service use, adjusting for known correlates. Results:, Our results showed that, except for impairment, other individual, family and school factors did not explain gender differences in service utilization. Males with impairment were 2.87 times more likely to receive services than impaired females (p , .01), and this result continued to hold true for impaired undiagnosed boys compared to impaired diagnoses-free girls (p , .001). Conclusions:, Our findings showed a service disparity between impaired boys and girls who did not meet criteria for a DSM IV diagnosis, but no observed differences in service use between boys and girls who met criteria for severe emotional disturbance (SED). Continued investigations are necessary to analyze, assess and understand the different circumstances that bring boys and girls into treatment, followed by the development of appropriate intervention programs at the school and community levels. [source]


Does rat global transient cerebral ischemia serve as an appropriate model to study emotional disturbances?

FUNDAMENTAL & CLINICAL PHARMACOLOGY, Issue 6 2004
Guy Bernard Bantsiele
Abstract We used two validated psychopharmacological methods, the forced swimming test (FST 20 min and 5 min) and the elevated plus-maze (EPM), to quantify depression-like and anxiety-like behavior induced by transient global cerebral ischemia in the rat. We also validated use of these methods for the study of antidepressant (imipramine) and anti-anxiety drugs (diazepam). Twelve days after surgery to provoke transient global ischemia, spontaneous motor activity was 40% higher in ischemic rats than in sham-operated controls. Duration of immobility during the FST 20 min and 5 min was 28 and 30% shorter, respectively, than in controls. Treatment with imipramine (3 × 30 mg/kg i.p.) induced a significantly shorter duration of immobility during the FST 5 min, but with no difference between ischemia and control rats. The EPM demonstrated that ischemia did not induce any change in the six behavior parameters measured. Diazepam (1.5 mg/kg i.p.) induced significant anxiolytic effects which were similar in ischemic and sham-operated animals. Both tests failed to demonstrate perturbed performance but conversely, these findings did disclose the sensitivity of ischemia-exposed rats to the action of imipramine and diazepam, demonstrating the usefulness of these tests as psychopharmocological tools for evaluating the effect of psychotropics in the ischemic rat. [source]


Basal ganglia pathology in schizophrenia: dopamine connections and anomalies

JOURNAL OF NEUROCHEMISTRY, Issue 2 2010
Emma Perez-Costas
J. Neurochem. (2010) 113, 287,302. Abstract Schizophrenia is a severe mental illness that affects 1% of the world population. The disease usually manifests itself in early adulthood with hallucinations, delusions, cognitive and emotional disturbances and disorganized thought and behavior. Dopamine was the first neurotransmitter to be implicated in the disease, and though no longer the only suspect in schizophrenia pathophysiology, it obviously plays an important role. The basal ganglia are the site of most of the dopamine neurons in the brain and the target of anti-psychotic drugs. In this review, we will start with an overview of basal ganglia anatomy emphasizing dopamine circuitry. Then, we will review the major deficits in dopamine function in schizophrenia, emphasizing the role of excessive dopamine in the basal ganglia and the link to psychosis. [source]


Effects of psychological stress on the cerebral processing of visceral stimuli in healthy women

NEUROGASTROENTEROLOGY & MOTILITY, Issue 7 2009
C. Rosenberger
Abstract, The aim of the study was to analyse effects of psychological stress on the neural processing of visceral stimuli in healthy women. The brain functional magnetic resonance imaging blood oxygen level-dependent response to non-painful and painful rectal distensions was recorded from 14 healthy women during acute psychological stress and a control condition. Acute stress was induced with a modified public speaking stress paradigm. State anxiety was assessed with the State-Trait-Anxiety Inventory; chronic stress was measured with the Perceived Stress Questionnaire. During non-painful distensions, activation was observed in the right posterior insular cortex (IC) and right S1. Painful stimuli revealed activation of the bilateral anterior IC, right S1, and right pregenual anterior cingulate cortex. Chronic stress score was correlated with activation of the bilateral amygdala, right posterior IC (post-IC), left periaqueductal grey (PAG), and right dorsal posterior cingulate gyrus (dPCC) during non-painful stimulation, and with activation of the right post-IC, right PAG, left thalamus (THA), and right dPCC during painful distensions. During acute stress, state anxiety was significantly higher and the acute stress , control contrast revealed activation of the right dPCC, left THA and right S1 during painful stimulation. This is the first study to demonstrate effects of acute stress on cerebral activation patterns during visceral pain in healthy women. Together with our finding that chronic stress was correlated wit the neural response to visceral stimuli, these results provide a framework for further studies addressing the role of chronic stress and emotional disturbances in the pathophysiology of visceral hyperalgesia. [source]


The Importance of Context in Fostering Responsive Community Systems: Supports for Families in Systems of Care

AMERICAN JOURNAL OF ORTHOPSYCHIATRY, Issue 1 2010
James R. Cook
The importance of helping families of children with severe emotional disturbances (SED) connect with informal or natural supports,that is, individuals who are part of their ongoing communities and daily lives,has been widely recognized. Utilization of informal supports has thus become a core element within systems of care (SOCs) designed to improve services for children with SED and their families. However, research demonstrates that implementation of wraparound, the key practice approach within SOCs, often does not include involvement of informal supports. Using a measure of social connectedness (SC), developed to augment the instruments used for the SOC national evaluation, this study assessed parents' and caregivers' views of their connections to and support from their community within a SOC. Overall, parents and caregivers reported low levels of support across multiple sources as well as a desire for more support. Greater levels of perceived support related positively to caregiver strain, types of and satisfaction with services received, and views of their communities as supportive and safe. Greater attention to families' contexts and the identification of effective ways to connect families to their communities are recommended. [source]


Social maladjustment and students with behavioral and emotional disorders: Revisiting basic assumptions and assessment issues

PSYCHOLOGY IN THE SCHOOLS, Issue 8 2004
Daniel Olympia
While much of the current focus in special education remains on reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Act of 1997, disparities in the identification of children with serious emotional disorders continue to plague special educators and school psychologists. Several years after the issue of social maladjustment and its relationship to serious emotional disturbance was discussed and debated, little appears to have changed. Children, adolescents, and families are subjected to widely varying philosophies, assessment procedures, and services based on questionable criteria used to determine whether a student "qualifies" for services under the Serious Emotional Disturbance (SED) designation. In this paper, we address how this issue has significantly affected access to services for students with serious emotional disturbances. Faulty assumptions regarding the relationship of social maladjustment to emotional disturbance in children/adolescents are identified and the implications of these assumptions for children are described. The lack of research supporting specific tools developed to assess social maladjustment in the context of a serious emotional disorder and the impact of this current practice on children is addressed from a practical and ethical standpoint. The role of the school psychologist as gatekeeper is contrasted to that of the more positive role as facilitator. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Psychol Schs 41: 835,847, 2004. [source]


A comparative assessment of psychological and psychosocial characteristics of cancer patients and their caregivers

PSYCHO-ONCOLOGY, Issue 1 2003
S. Rossi Ferrario
We recruited 50 cancer patients and their caregivers with the aim of extending our knowledge of emotional, personality and psychosocial variables, and comparing their reciprocal experience of the disease. The patients and caregivers were administered four of the questionnaires included in the Cognitive Behavioral Assessment 2.0, the Family Strain Questionnaire and the Satisfaction with Life Scale. The patients were characterised by significantly greater emotional disturbances than their caregivers, who were emotionally stable and had a relatively low level of perceived strain despite their high level of hostility and state anxiety. The intra-scale correlations highlighted the fact that the perception of distress depends on neuroticism and the presence of anxiety and depression (which are themselves known to be connected with neuroticism). The everyday life of the caregivers seemed to be characterised by restricted social relationships and interests; a relatively large proportion also declared that they had practical problems related to disease management, economics and some embarrassing and stigmatic aspects of the disease itself. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]


Abnormal activity in reward brain circuits in human narcolepsy with cataplexy

ANNALS OF NEUROLOGY, Issue 2 2010
Aurélie Ponz PhD
Objective Hypothalamic hypocretins (or orexins) regulate energy metabolism and arousal maintenance. Recent animal research suggests that hypocretins may also influence reward-related behaviors. In humans, the loss of hypocretin-containing neurons results in a major sleep-wake disorder called narcolepsy-cataplexy, which is associated with emotional disturbances. Here, we aim to test whether narcoleptic patients show an abnormal pattern of brain activity during reward processing. Methods We used functional magnetic resonance imaging in 12 unmedicated patients with narcolepsy-cataplexy to measure the neural responses to expectancy and experience of monetary gains and losses. We statistically compared the patients' data with those obtained in a group of 12 healthy matched controls. Results and Interpretation Our results reveal that activity in the dopaminergic ventral midbrain (ventral tegmental area) was not modulated in narcolepsy-cataplexy patients during high reward expectancy (unlike controls), and that ventral striatum activity was reduced during winning. By contrast, the patients showed abnormal activity increases in the amygdala and in dorsal striatum for positive outcomes. In addition, we found that activity in the nucleus accumbens and the ventral-medial prefrontal cortex correlated with disease duration, suggesting that an alternate neural circuit could be privileged over the years to control affective responses to emotional challenges and compensate for the lack of influence from ventral midbrain regions. Our study offers a detailed picture of the distributed brain network involved during distinct stages of reward processing and shows for the first time, to our knowledge, how this network is affected in hypocretin-deficient narcoleptic patients. ANN NEUROL 2010;67:190,200 [source]