Little is known about services for children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) living in rural areas. The purpose of this study was to examine parent report of access to and satisfaction with services for children with ASD in rural areas and compare results to parents from urban areas. Parents in both groups reported children were diagnosed…

ADHD is one of the most common neurobehavioral disorders of childhood, and FDA-approved medications offer an efficacious treatment option. However, case reports and anecdotal sources suggest that children can have emotional responses, both salutary and detrimental, to these agents. We have previously conducted a comprehensive literature review and…

Although epilepsy is particularly common among people with intellectual disability (ID) it remains unclear whether it is associated with an increased likelihood of co-morbid psychopathology. We therefore investigated rates of mental health problems and other clinical characteristics in patients with ID and epilepsy (N=156) as compared to patients…

Three schemes for assessing stuttering were compared. They differed with respect to whether they included whole-word repetitions as characteristics more typical of stuttering. Persistent and recovered groups of children were examined to see whether: (1) one of the schemes differentiated the groups better than others; (2) more and less typical of…

Forty-eight adults diagnosed with intellectual disabilities and Autistic Disorder or Pervasive Developmental Disorder-Not Otherwise Specified were examined with regard to psychotropic medication side effects. Participants were divided into 4 groups: no psychotropic medication group (n = 9); atypical antipsychotic medication group (n = 13);…

Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) diagnosis requires first identifying a traumatic event, but very few studies have evaluated methods of potential traumatic event assessment and their impact on PTSD diagnosis. The authors compared a behaviorally specific comprehensive multiple-item traumatic event measure with a single-item measure to…

Background: The diagnostic validity of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) based on Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) has been challenged in Down syndrome (DS), because of the high prevalence of cognitive impairments in this population. Therefore, we attempted to validate DSM-based diagnoses via an unbiased categorisation of…

Bipolar (BD) symptomatology is prevalent in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and may lead to increased impairment. The current study compared clinical and neurocognitive impairment in children (7-13 years) diagnosed with ASD (n=55), BD (n=34), ASD + BD (n=23), and a non-clinical control group (n=27). Relative to the ASD group, the ASD…

The aim of this study was to show some specificity of syntax of narratives created by persons diagnosed with antisocial personality. The author attempted to verify and supplement information that persons with antisocial personality have an incapacity for emotional language. Scores of 60 prisoners with high antisocial tendencies, 40 prisoners with…

Objective: In this longitudinal study, the predictive validity of a psychiatric diagnosis of sexual sadism was compared with three behavioral indicators of sadism: index sexual offense violence, sexual intrusiveness, and phallometrically assessed sexual arousal to depictions of sexual or nonsexual violence. Method: Five hundred and eighty six…

In a mental health system where limited specialized services exist for individuals with intellectual disability (ID), patients using such services should be those with the most complex needs. The purpose of this study was to compare the profile of patients with ID served in a specialized unit (n = 40) to those in generic units (n = 141) within one…

Objective: The authors examined the ability of college students to simulate ADHD symptoms on objective and self-report measures and the relationship between knowledge of ADHD and ability to simulate ADHD. Method: Undergraduate students were assigned to a control or a simulated ADHD malingering condition and compared with a clinical AD/HD group.…

Current clinical diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) occurs between 3 and 4 years of age, but increasing evidence indicates that intervention begun earlier may improve outcomes. Using secondary analysis of the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Birth Cohort data set, the current study identifies early predictors prior to the diagnosis of…

Biederman and colleagues reported that a CBCL profile identified youngsters who were diagnosed with bipolar disorder. Some studies found that this CBCL profile does not reliably identify children who present with bipolar disorder, but nonetheless this CBCL does identify youngsters with severe dysfunction. However, the nature of the impairment of…

Objective: To explore attachment narratives in children diagnosed with reactive attachment disorder (RAD). Method: We compared attachment narratives, as measured by the Manchester Child Attachment Story Task, in a group of 33 children with a diagnosis of RAD and 37 comparison children. Results: The relative risk (RR) for children with RAD having…