Emotional and semantic priming as a measure of information processing in young people with school refusal: a research note.

We investigated semantic and emotional priming of lexical decision-making in 20 school refusers and 20 attenders aged 11-16 years, matched for sex and reading ability. We hypothesised that: semantic and emotional priming would be demonstrable in both samples; and that the school refusers would show emotional priming of school-related words to aversive primes. Both samples showed semantic priming; emotional priming was shown by the attenders and 11 school refusers without a history of depression. School-refusing children did not show emotional priming for school-related words. Nine school-refusing children with either current or past depression showed a general reduction in their priming. These results show that both semantic and emotional priming can be detected in this age-range. They do not support school refusal being typically associated with anxiety about school. The reduction in priming in those with a depressive history is similar to inhibition in information processing in depressed adults. Priming is therefore sensitive to at least some psychiatrically relevant states or traits in this age-range. It is concluded that priming could be a useful measure of information processing in this age-group, and further research is warranted.

Parental psychiatric disorder: clinical prevalence and effects on default from treatment.

In a retrospective case note study, 36% of 253 consecutive cases seen and treated at a community child and adolescent clinic had at least one caretaker with a concurrent psychiatric disorder. The most common diagnosis in caretakers was depression (20% of the sample). Both, psychiatric disorder in general, and depression in particular, were significantly related to default from treatment. The relevance of these results to all aspects of child health care is discussed. It is concluded that more research into the impact of parental psychiatric disorder on the treatment of children across various clinical settings is needed.