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A review of referrals to the University department of child psychiatry in Newcastle upon Tyne demonstrated active consultation and collaboration between the department and paediatric departments. Important differences in sex, distribution of psychiatric disorders and presence of associated physical and social handicap were found between patients referred from different sources. The presence of some psychological disturbance in those children referred from hospital wards was evident to most paediatricians, and constituted the most frequent reason for referral. Recommendation for psychiatric treatment was made for the majority of patients, but subsequent parental co-operation was often poor. In the authors' view the greatest value of this research is that it highlights atrange of disorders of common concern to paediatricians and children's psychiatrists, using not only the terminology traditional in child psychiatry but also employing a descriptive terminology. They believe it is essential that trainees of both disciplines should have adequate experience in this wide range of disorders.

A comparison was made of the reliability and validity of two self-rating scales, the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) and Depression Self-Rating Scale (DSRS), in the diagnosis of depression in 93 children (aged 8-1 6 years) attending a university child psychiatry department. The two scales were of comparable merit but had only moderate discrimination between depressed and non-depressed children, with each scale having a misclassification rate of 25%. Better agreement was obtained in more verbally intelligent children, irrespective of age. Girls scored higher on the instruments than boys. No significant relationship was found between teacher assessment of classroom behaviour and the two self-rating depression instruments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A tota of 275 successive referrals to a university child psychiatry unit out-patient department were examined using the Child Depression Inventory. Of these, 95 children were examined further by a structured clinical interview, and the relationship between different instruments for the assessment of depression in childhood was investigated. Just over one-third of the children (35%) had significant depression, and it was found that depression may be missed unless children with other psychiatric diagnoses are examined closely. Multivariate analyses of the clinical data provided factorial validation of diagnoses when employing different clinical diagnostic schemas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The timing and number of recent stressful life events occurring in the year before onset of emotional or behavioural disorder was examined in a consecutive sample of children. Overall, events increase the relative risk of psychiatric disorder by 3-6 times. Events occur throughout the 12 months, but tend to cluster in the 16 weeks nearest onset of symptoms. The number of events influences the onset of disorder: cases with multiple events are more likely to have an event within 16 weeks of onset; cases with single events are more likely to have the event 36-52 weeks before onset. Cases whose onset occurs within 4 weeks of an event may have experienced single or multiple events. The results support the concept of additivity of recent stressful events in some cases of emotional and behavioural disorders in childhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A sample of children and adolescents (n = 157) attending a child psychiatry outpatient clinic with conduct or emotional disturbance were compared with community controls (n = 76) for the number and type of recent life events. A Life Events Schedule for children and adolescents was developed and used as a semi-structured interview. Four clinical groups were identified according to their predominant presenting symptoms (conduct, mild mood, severe mood, or somatic). An excess of events carrying a severe degree of negative impact was found for all four groups, compared with matched controls. Eleven classes of events were examined: there is a suggestion that two classes (martial/family, accident/illness) may be more important for conduct and mild mood disorders, and that a further class (permanent separations, termed exits) may be more important for somatic and severe mood disorders. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a speech by psychologist I. Kolvin delivered at the meeting of the Section of Psychiatry on October 12, 1982. He discusses the criteria for good outcome of psychotherapy research, the controversy about the effects of psychotherapy, the assessment on the outcome of Newcastle studies about psychotherapy, and its effectiveness.

The definition and problems in diagnosis of childhood hallucinations is the background of a critical review of reported figures of incidence. Hallucinations, occurring in clear consciousness in a child psychiatric in-patient population are presented in this article. There was a frequency of 5 per cent in the general in-patient group. Eighty-one per cent of these with psychosis of late onset were hallucinated in contrast to the infantile psychosis group where none were found. Descriptions of children with hallucinations arising in great stress, late onset psychosis and Mandrax intoxication are given.

The article presents a study of various symptomatic, physical and social aspects of 47 cases of infantile psychosis and 33 cases of late onset psychosis, focusing on the cognitive development of the psychotic children admitted at the Park Hospital for Children, Oxford, and the Newcastle Child Psychiatry Unit. The study used the Welchsler Intelligence Scale for Children on older, more accessible and brighter children in a routine psychological testing and in other cases the Merrill-Palmer was utilized. Findings revealed that in the first three years of life, onset of psychosis was associated with major intellectual deficit and later onset was linked with only moderate deficit. Moreover, low intelligence quotients tended to be associated with cumulative cerebral dysfunction in early onset.

The article presents a study of cerebral dysfunction of 46 children suffering from infantile psychosis (IP) and in 33 suffering from late onset psychosis (LOP). Child psychoses were divided into three groups, those beginning before the age of three; those between the age of three and five; and those beginning after the age of five. They were studied in terms of anomalies in perinatal life and by neurological and electroencephalogram (EEG) examinations. Findings revealed that 46 percent of IP cases and 69 percent of LOP cases had not been found any evidence of the dysfunction. In addition, the research showed evidence that more of the pure IP cases came from the first and second levels of the social class.

The article presents a study which tests the common assumption in child psychiatry that the personality and attitudes of parents is a fundamental influence on the developing child. Researchers aims to examine it relative to aberrant personality and undeniable psychiatric disorder in childhood. Researchers studied the personalities of the mothers of 79 children with infantile psychosis (IP) and long onset psychosis (LOP) and were administered with Maudsley Personality Inventory (MPI). MPI revealed that 42 percent of the mothers of 32 children with LOP were considered as introverted, but only 13 percent of the mothers of 46 children with IP. Also, those parents with IP children were overprotective.

The article presents a study which aims to explore whether the family and social background distinguishes childhood psychoses. The study involves 47 infantile psychoses cases and 33 long onset psychoses cases. Findings suggest that the different childhood psychoses are associated to social class, with the strong possibility that IP is common in the fist and second levels of the social class. In addition, a trend was shown in the mothers of LOP children towards a degree of social isolation, attributed to their personalities. It also found out that parent of IP children had a low rate of schizophrenia while parents of the LOP children had a significantly high rate which reflects a genetic association between childhood LOP and adult schizophrenia.

The article presents a study which analyzes the clinical picture of eighty psychotic children at Oxford or Newscastle, classified as suffering from infantile psychosis (IP) or from late onset psychosis (LOP). Researchers observed that LOP children showed disorder of form and stream of thought and disordered thought content while IP group was characterized by severe speech delay and many speech anomalies. The study also discussed the problems of accurately evaluating the presence of LOP and IP phenomena. Moreover, authors remarked that LOP cases with a simple schizophrenic picture maybe confused with IP cases of the same age if a clear medical history is not shown.

The article presents a study which discusses the division of childhood psychoses. They can be grouped into: (1) children with early onset and a slow chronic course; (2) children age three to five years with an acute course followed by regression; and (3) children aged over 5 years with a late onset and a fluctuating subacute course. Details of the researchers' ascertainment criteria in the study, the infantile psychosis and late onset psychoses are also discussed. Meanwhile, the study reported in the paper evaluates the value of distinction by age onset and creates the frequency of occurrence of the different signs in the different clinical groups.