Approaches that use a simulated patient case to study and assess diagnostic reasoning usually use the correct diagnosis of the case as a measure of success and as an anchor for other measures. Commonly, the correctness of a diagnosis is determined by the judgment of one or more experts. In this study, the consistency of experts' judgments of the…

This investigation examined how two commonly employed measures of functional impairment (the "Child and Adolescent Functional Assessment Scale" [CAFAS] and the "Global Assessment of Functioning" [GAF] scale) perform with respect to assessing levels of functional impairment and, hence, identifying rates of serious emotional…

This study applies a diagnostic errors framework to identify and classify mistakes that were made in a psychoeducational assessment of a bilingual student who was misidentified as a person with autism. Findings of diagnostic errors were categorized under four domains--faulty knowledge, faulty data gathering, faulty data processing, and faulty…

The goals and measures of the National Comorbidity Survey Replication Adolescent Supplement are discussed. The survey seeks to provide the first nationally representative estimate of mental disorders among U.S. adolescents aged 13 to 17 years. The survey can also be used to generate patterns of service use and barriers to treatment.

The Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) diagnoses that was based on the World Health Organization's Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI) and implemented in the National comorbidity survey replication adolescent supplement is found to have good individual-level concordance with diagnosis based on blinded…

The increased occurrence of strokes combined with the high incidence of bilingualism in many regions of the world has led to an increasing number of bilingual adults with aphasia. The literature on bilingual aphasia shows the need for valid, comprehensive and reliable assessment tools for diagnostic and treatment purposes. In spite of a growing…

A six-year-old child was independently assessed by three licensed educational (school) psychologists and one interdisciplinary team in the UK. All but one of these practitioners believed their assessment to be the first. The aim was to compare the practice of assessors and their conclusions especially in diagnostic categorisation. The methods of…

Hemicrania continua is an uncommon primary headache disorder, characterized by continuous unilateral pain, where pain exacerbations are associated with cranial autonomic features. The hallmark of this condition is the absolute response to indometacin. We describe the phenotype of this condition in a large series of patients. Thirty-six (92%)…

Youth exhibiting symptoms of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder are frequently referred to school psychologists because of academic, social, and behavioral difficulties that they face. To address these difficulties, evidence-based assessment methods have been outlined for multiple purposes of assessment. The goals of this study were to…

Quantitative variations in score profiles from the parent version of the PDD Behavior Inventory (PDDBI) were examined in young Autism and PDD-NOS groups defined by ADOS-G and ADI-R criteria, relative to a not spectrum (NS) group of similar age. Both the Autism and the PDD-NOS group profiles markedly differed from the NS group. The most sensitive…

We conducted a meta-analysis to examine depressive symptomatology among students with learning disabilities (LD), as reported by their parents and teachers. A 2006 meta-analysis by Maag & Reid of the self-reports of students with LD indicated that this group's higher report of depressive symptoms compared to non-LD students was small in magnitude…

Background: In 2004, a firework factory in a residential area of a large Danish city exploded. The children at the local school were screened for symptoms of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) 16 months and 3½ years after the incident. A large proportion of the children still suffered from a substantial number of symptoms 3½ years after the…

Bipolar disorder is frequently clinically diagnosed in youths who do not actually satisfy Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (4th ed., text revision; DSM-IV-TR; American Psychiatric Association, 1994) criteria, yet cases that would satisfy full DSM-IV-TR criteria are often undetected clinically. Evidence-based assessment methods…

Background: Early diagnosis of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is of crucial importance, but lengthy delays are common. We examined whether this issue could be reliably addressed by local teams trained by a specialist ASD assessment team. Method: Four local teams were trained in diagnostic assessment. Their assessments of 38 children and young…

As the "Behavioral Assessment System for Children, Second Edition" ("BASC-2") is often used to aid in diagnosis it is important to discern how children and adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) score on the "BASC-2" compared to typically developing controls. This study compared scores of typically developing…