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A rare opportunity to study deprivation and criminality across generations arose from the follow-up of the families who participated in the Newcastle Thousand Family Survey. The data on these families had been preserved and it was possible, using criminal records, to examine longitudinally whether children who grew up in 'deprived' rather than 'non-deprived' families were more at risk of offending during later childhood and beyond. The results of this study suggest that this is indeed so. [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]

As part of a larger study, a brief rating-scale was developed which focuses on the mid-adolescent phase of development. Completed by teachers, the questionnaire has an inter-rater reliability of 0.78, with a test-retest correlation of 0.82. When the performances of various screening instruments were compared it became clear that no single questionnaire was obviously more efficient than the others at detecting potential disturbance in an urban adolescent population. Indeed, different questionnaires seemed to highlight particular facets of functioning. The Newcastle Adolescent Questionnaire proved to be a reliable and valid screening measure. [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]

Fifty-one school phobic children, aged nine to fourteen years, were assessed for psychiatric diagnosis; this revealed the presence of two clinically meaningful sub-groups--depressed and residual school phobic. A wide range of symptoms were studied to identify those which might prove useful in diagnosing adult-type depression in childhood and early adolescence, both in terms of frequency of symptoms in the depressed group and the extent of the distinction between the two groups. Eleven such key symptoms were identified and based on these, a formula for diagnosing adult-type depression was evolved. The validity of several different ways of classifying the above cases were explored; these covered: kind of disorder; type of onset; adolescence versus pre-adolescence; and sex of the child. However, on only one dichotomy--depression versus absence of depression--were there many significant discriminants. Affective symptomatology of more recent onset was contrasted with pre-morbid personality traits, usually associated with school phobia. There was no evidence to support the concept of 'masked depression' in childhood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A double-blind trial failed to demonstrate any significant short-term effects of clomipramine in doses recommended for use in general practice (in addition to the usual range of psychotherapeutic help) in the treatment of children with school refusal and neurotic disorder. Patterns of improvement were also studied for the sample as a whole irrespective of treatment. Neither age nor sex were significantly related to improvement, except on one behavioural measure where girls initially did better than boys. In addition, it was found that there was a rapid relief of depression but neurotic symptomatology tended to persist. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Junior schoolchildren were screened for high risk of emotional and educational disorder. The information was gathered from the school, using standard and objective tests. The multiple criterion screen employed, comprised: (a) classroom behaviour scale (Rutter B Scale), rated by teachers; (b) sociometric tests; choice of companions by classmates. From these, lack of positive choices was taken as a measure of isolation and a high rate of negative choices, as a measure of rejection; (c) Reading quotient of 75 or below on the Young Reading Test; (d) Absence from school for reasons considered by teachers to be trivial. The number of cases identified by the screening was found to be 322 children per thousand. They may be seen as representing a high risk rate. Using extreme scores as indicative of high risk, approximately 17 per cent of children were identified on the basis of the behaviour test; 12 per cent by the reading test; 9 per cent by the isolation test; 8 per cent by the rejection test and 3 per cent by the absenteeism test. Seventy per cent of the identified children were rated clinically as disturbed. Absenteeism identified the smallest percentage of cases and made the smallest independent contribution of identification. Isolation was not impressively related to neurotic or antisocial behaviour. The three important criteria, therefore, were behaviour, rejection and reading. Corrected disturbance rates for our population of 7-8-year-old children, including those not identified by the screen, were 6-8 per cent markedly maladjusted and 33-7 per cent somewhat maladjusted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study on the dimensions of behavior among infant school children based on the reports of their parents. The study employed a questionnaire that asks questions about children's behavior, its frequency and its severity. Some of the behavior features classified in the questionnaire are absence of guilt, infantilism, restless sleep, relationships with siblings, bedwetting and obsessionality. It indicated that the behavior of infant school children can be related to conduct disorder and neurotic disorder.

SUMMARY A Principal Component Analysis of 39 temperamental attributes on a random sample of 209 infant school children produced four meaningful components. These identified components make an important contribution to an understanding of temperamental organization. A brief questionnaire using the above data has been developed for measuring temperament in infant school children. There are 30 questions with appropriate probes which relate to four components (dimensions): (a) Withdrawal, poor adaptation, dependence, etc.; (b) High activity, intensity, distractibility, etc.; (c) Moodiness, sulkiness; (d) Irregularity. Tentative norms arc provided for the above dimensions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A DES-sponsored school-based social work programme is described, in which six social workers collaborated with teachers in attempts to optimise the school and home environments of ‘at risk’ and ‘maladjusted’ junior and senior pupils. The principal components of the scheme included teacher-social work consultation, attempts to increase parent-teacher understanding, and a casework approach with the families. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

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.

A letter to the editor is presented in response to a commentary on the article about depression in school phobia, published in the March 1986 issue.

Compares the efficacy of individual and group therapy in treating symptomatic sexually abused girls in London, England. Persistence of psychiatric symptoms; Assessment on the generic and abuse-specific components of the therapy; Evaluation of patient outcome.

We study the structure and dynamics of the interface separating a passive fluid from a microtubule-based active fluid. Turbulent-like active flows power giant interfacial fluctuations, which exhibit pronounced asymmetry between regions of positive and negative curvature. Experiments, numerical simulations, and theoretical arguments reveal how the interface breaks up the spatial symmetry of the fundamental bend instability to generate local vortical flows that lead to asymmetric interface fluctuations. The magnitude of interface deformations increases with activity: In the high activity limit, the interface self-folds invaginating passive droplets and generating a foam-like phase, where active fluid is perforated with passive droplets. These results demonstrate how active stresses control the structure, dynamics, and break-up of soft, deformable, and reconfigurable liquid-liquid interfaces., Competing Interests: Competing interests statement:The authors declare no competing interest.

Active liquid crystals exert nonequilibrium stresses on their surroundings through constant consumption of energy, giving rise to dynamical steady states not present in equilibrium. The paradigmatic example of an active liquid crystal is a suspension of microtubule bundles powered by kinesin motor proteins, which exhibits self-sustained spatiotemporal chaotic flows. This system has been modelled using continuum theories that couple the microtubule orientation to active flows. Recently the focus has shifted to the interfacial properties of mixtures of active liquid crystals and passive fluids. Active/passive interfaces have been shown to support propagating capillary waves in the absence of inertia and offer a promising route for relating experimental parameters to those of the continuum theory. In this paper we report the derivation of a minimal model that captures the linear dynamics of the interface between an active liquid crystal and a passive fluid. We show that the dynamics of the interface, although powered by active flows throughout the bulk, is qualitatively captured by equations that couple non-reciprocally interface height and nematic director at the interface. This minimal model reproduces the dynamical structure factor evaluated from numerical simulations and the qualitative form of the wave dispersion relation seen in experiments.

Controlling interfaces of phase-separating fluid mixtures is key to the creation of diverse functional soft materials. Traditionally, this is accomplished with surface-modifying chemical agents. Using experiment and theory, we studied how mechanical activity shapes soft interfaces that separate an active and a passive fluid. Chaotic flows in the active fluid give rise to giant interfacial fluctuations and noninertial propagating active waves. At high activities, stresses disrupt interface continuity and drive droplet generation, producing an emulsion-like active state composed of finite-sized droplets. When in contact with a solid boundary, active interfaces exhibit nonequilibrium wetting transitions, in which the fluid climbs the wall against gravity. These results demonstrate the promise of mechanically driven interfaces for creating a new class of soft active matter.

Topological structures are effective descriptors of the nonequilibrium dynamics of diverse many-body systems. For example, motile, point-like topological defects capture the salient features of two-dimensional active liquid crystals composed of energy-consuming anisotropic units. We dispersed force-generating microtubule bundles in a passive colloidal liquid crystal to form a three-dimensional active nematic. Light-sheet microscopy revealed the temporal evolution of the millimeter-scale structure of these active nematics with single-bundle resolution. The primary topological excitations are extended, charge-neutral disclination loops that undergo complex dynamics and recombination events. Our work suggests a framework for analyzing the nonequilibrium dynamics of bulk anisotropic systems as diverse as driven complex fluids, active metamaterials, biological tissues, and collections of robots or organisms., (Copyright © 2020 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works.)