Dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate and corticotropin levels are high in young male patients with conduct disorder: comparisons for growth factors, thyroid and gonadal hormones.

Childhood conduct disorder (CD) may originate in a stressful upbringing, and be associated with unusual physical or sexual development and thyroid dysfunction. We therefore explored circulating levels of hormones from adrenal, gonadal and growth hormone axes associated with stress, aggression and development in 28 CD patients and 13 age-matched healthy children (10-18 years old). The CD group had higher levels of dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate (DHEA-S), corticotropin (ACTH) and free tri-iodothyronine (fT(3)) if under 14 years. There were no differences for gonadal hormones or maturity ratings which were not associated with aggression. Smaller physical measures in CD children correlated with DHEA-S and growth factors (e.g. insulin-like growth factor I) increased ACTH and fT(3) correlated with restless-impulsive ratings, and DHEA-S with 'disruptive behaviour'. Imbalances in the adrenal and growth axes may have neurotropic repercussions in development.

[The development of alcohol dependence in adolescents with personalities of the affective-excitable type]. / Formirovanie alkogol'noi zavisimosti u podrostkov s lichnost'iu affektivno-vozbudimogo tipa.

Ten 13-17-year-old boys with pathocharacterologic peculiarities in premorbid period were examined. Syndrome of affective excitability was observed in pure form in 5 juveniles, while it was combined with hysteric features in 3 patients and with affective instability in 2 ones. These peculiarities of personality resulted in behavioral deviations which promoted the development of alcoholism and exaggerated of disorders conditioned by this disease. Course of alcoholism in the studied cases was unfavourable (binges, intake of large doses of alcohol and of the substitutes, etc) with pronounced disorders of behaviour up to aggression and delinquency. It was established that psychologic motivation (search of psychologic comfort, satisfaction of the need of actualization of personality, etc) played an important role both in development of the disease and in forming its clinical peculiarities.

[Clinico-pathogenetic patterns in the development of the runaway syndrome in children and adolescents (according to the findings of a clinico-epidemiologic study)]. / Kliniko-patogeneticheskie zakonomernosti stanovleniia sindroma ukhodov i brodniazhnichestva u detei i podrostkov (po dannym kliniko-épidemiologicheskogo issledovaniia).

A clinico-epidemiological study involved children and adolescents with a history of home abandoning and tramping who live in two administrative districts of a big city. The study was aimed at investigating the prevalence of the dromomania syndrome in the children and adolescents of the given districts, the specification of the nosological and syndromal characteristics of the patients, and eliciting the etiopathogenetic role of various factors (social, communal and biological) in the formation of this syndrome. The findings obtained are indicative of the prevalence of the dromomania syndrome in children and adolescents and of the proportion of various forms of psychic pathology in this patient population. The significance of various factors in the etiopathogenesis of the syndrome was found to vary in different nosological forms.