ABSTRACT
The adoption of children reared in poor quality Romanian institutions provided a "natural experiment" to determine whether psychological privation is the cause of later deficits. Low IQ at six years was strongly related to the duration of institutional care, with malnutrition having a weaker effect. After taking both into account, there was an additional effect of a particularly marked lack of individualized care.
Subject(s)
Child Care/standards , Child Development/physiology , Child Rearing , Cognition/physiology , Residential Facilities/standards , Child, Preschool , Female , Humans , Infant , Male , Nutrition Disorders/diagnosis , Retrospective StudiesABSTRACT
Six per cent of child in a sample of 111 children who were adopted into U.K. families from Romania, and who were systematically assessed at the ages of 4 and 6 years, showed autistic-like patterns of behaviour. A further 6% showed milder (usually isolated) autistic features. Such autistic characteristics were not found in a similarly studied sample of 52 children adopted in the first 6 months of life within the U.K. The children from Romania with autistic patterns showed clinical features closely similar to "ordinary" autism at 4 years but they differed with respect to the improvement seen by age 6 years, to an equal sex ratio, and to a normal head circumference. The children from Romania with autistic features tended to differ from the other Romanian adoptees with respect to a greater degree of cognitive impairment and a longer duration of severe psychological privation.
Subject(s)
Autistic Disorder/etiology , Child Development , Child, Institutionalized/psychology , Institutionalization , Orphanages , Psychosocial Deprivation , Adoption , Analysis of Variance , Autistic Disorder/classification , Autistic Disorder/epidemiology , Behavioral Symptoms/classification , Case-Control Studies , Child , Child, Preschool , Cognition Disorders/etiology , Developmental Disabilities/etiology , Disease Progression , Female , Humans , Infant , Intellectual Disability/etiology , Longitudinal Studies , Male , Prevalence , Romania/ethnology , Sampling Studies , Severity of Illness Index , Social Behavior , Time Factors , United Kingdom/epidemiologyABSTRACT
Research with adults suggests that early onset of depression is associated with increased rates of depression among relatives. This paper presents results, of a family study that tested the hypothesis that prepubertal depression was associated with a greater familial loading of depression than the postpubertal form, which in turn had a greater familial loading than adult onset depression. Probands were from a child to adult longitudinal study. Psychiatric disorders among relatives were assessed with family interview and family history methods 'blind' to all findings regarding the proband. Contrary to expectation, familial rates of depression did not differ significantly between the groups. However, manic disorders tended to be more common among the relatives of postpubertal depressed cases than among the relatives of adult onset cases. Moreover, relatives of prepubertal depressed subjects had higher rates of criminality and family discord than postpubertal subjects. Prepubertal onset depressive disorders appear to be relatively distinct from postpubertal forms.
Subject(s)
Depressive Disorder/genetics , Mental Disorders/genetics , Personality Development , Adolescent , Adult , Anxiety Disorders/diagnosis , Anxiety Disorders/genetics , Anxiety Disorders/psychology , Child , Child Behavior Disorders/diagnosis , Child Behavior Disorders/genetics , Child Behavior Disorders/psychology , Child of Impaired Parents/psychology , Depressive Disorder/diagnosis , Depressive Disorder/psychology , Female , Follow-Up Studies , Humans , Longitudinal Studies , Male , Mental Disorders/diagnosis , Mental Disorders/psychology , Risk Factors , United KingdomABSTRACT
This study followed up into adulthood a group of child psychiatric patients suffering from depressive disorders and a closely matched nondepressed child psychiatric control group. Depression in childhood was a strong predictor of attempted suicide in adulthood. This predictive power was not due to the association between childhood depression and other childhood risk factors such as conduct disorder or suicidality. Rather, it seemed mostly to reside in the association between depression in childhood and major depression in adult life. These findings suggest that the pathways from childhood psychopathology to adult outcomes can be complex, and depend crucially on what happens later.
Subject(s)
Depressive Disorder/psychology , Personality Development , Suicide, Attempted/psychology , Adolescent , Adult , Child , Child Behavior Disorders/diagnosis , Child Behavior Disorders/psychology , Depressive Disorder/diagnosis , Female , Follow-Up Studies , Humans , Male , Risk Factors , Suicide/psychologyABSTRACT
The summaries of clinical data on children attending the Maudsley Hospital during the years 1968-72 were used to identify 80 children meeting operational criteria for depression, and 80 matched psychiatric control children. At follow-up, on average 18 years after the initial contact, information was obtained on the adult outcomes of 62 of the depressed children and 69 of the controls. At least one first-degree relative of 111 (85%) of these probands was interviewed; the great majority of interviews with relatives were conducted 'blind' to the proband's symptoms in both childhood and adulthood. The lifetime prevalence of RDC depression was significantly higher in the 128 interviewed relatives of the depressed children than in the 151 relatives of the controls. Higher rates of depression were found among the female relatives of both the depressed and control probands. These findings suggest that depression in young people resembles depression in adults in two key respects: it tends to run in families, and there are higher rates of depression among the female than among the male first-degree relatives.
