Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a neurobehavioral disorder, characterized by developmentally inappropriate levels of overactivity, inattention and impulsivity. Measuring inattention is a controversial question in ADHD diagnosis. Eye movement could provide a method to assess distractibility. Several studies have related visual attention and perceptual dominance in binocular rivalry.

To assess visual attention through the measurement of fixations in a binocular rivalry task in ADHD children and control groups.

We proposed a task for the assessment of distractibility and to enhance the diagnosis of attention disorders.

Forty children, 20 with ADHD-combined type and 20 controls, matched by gender, age and intelligence, were tested with a binocular rivalry task (i.e. an anaglyph image) with an exogenous distractor appearing regularly. The stimulus was divided in four Areas of Interest (AOI). Measurements of duration of the periods of exclusive dominance, perceptual alternations in dominance / suppression and fixations were taken by an eye tracker and a response box. Analysis of Variance was used to test differences between ADHD and control groups.

Significant differences between ADHD and control groups were found in dwells at the main AOI. Also, significant differences between groups in “Fixation over alternations ratio” were found.

ADHD participants looked at the relevant region (AOI_1) for a shorter time than the control group; they also looked at the no demanded regions (AOI_2, AOI_3, AOI_4) longer than the control group. Moreover, the ratio fixations/alternations were greater for the control group than the ADHD group.

The “Gharb” plain (area of our study) localized in the North-West of Morocco is one of the most important agricultural and industrial regions of the Kingdom. Unfortunately, it suffered from the increase of different polluting human activities which expose the population, especially children, to serious neurobehavioral problems.

Evaluation of the short term memory and working memory in urban, periurban and rural schooled children (aged 6 to 8 years) living in Gharb plain and studying the relationship between the performance in this test and the quality of environment.

Memory Sub-test of WISC III (Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children) and questionnaire about some environmental conditions.

The obtained results had shown that 3,64% periurban children and 3,03% rural children suffer from short memory impairments and no impairments in urban children were registered. For working memory, 21,05%, 47,06% and 66,67% of impairments were found in urban, periurban and rural children respectively.Moreover, a significant correlations between the performances of short term memory and building materials (p < 0.05), source of pollution near the school (p < 0.05), and consumption of well water (p < 0.001) were registered.

The memory impairments recorded in these children appeared in connection with environmental factors, but a deeper investigation is needed for studying all these factors, in addition to others (psychological, socio-economical, and nutritional) ones.

Suicide among adults have been associated to subthreshold psychiatric illnesses as well; however it is little known about the role of subthreshold mental disorders in suicide risk among children/adolescents.

Using the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview Kid the authors examined 105 hospitalized children/adolescents in the Vadaskert Child Psychiatric Hospital, Budapest. Current suicide behavior was defined as giving positive answer to any of the following questions: “In the past month did you: think you would be better off dead or wish you were dead? want to hurt yourself? think about killing yourself? attempt suicide?”

We report data on 105 hospitalized children/adolescents, 76 (72.4%) boys and 29 (27.6%) girls. The mean age of the subjects was 11.4 years (SD = 3.43, min: 5, max: 17). Current suicide behavior was present in 18 cases (17.1%). There were one person with current suicide behavior, who did not have any current DSM-IV disorder, but he/she had current subthreshold disorder. The majority (n = 16, 88.8%) of the children/adolescents with suicide behavior had both current subthreshold and DSM-IV disorders. Eight children/adolescents (44.4%) with current suicide behavior had current DSM-IV major depressive episode and further 5 children/adolescents (27,8%) had current subthreshold major depressive episode. The prevalence of DSM-IV and subthreshold major depressive episode was significantly higher among hospitalized children with suicide behavior (n = 18), than among hospitalized children without suicide behavior (n = 87) (X2 = 5,272, df = 1. p = 0,022).

Subthreshold forms of pediatric psychiatric disorders need to be taken into account as well in suicide prevention.

The European Federation of Psychiatric Trainees (EFPT) is an independent federation of psychiatric trainees’ associations. Previous studies have shown that up to 1/3 of countries surveyed did not have separate CAP training We surveyed trainees to gain insights regarding current training within the member countries of the EFPT.

Ten item Survey of Trainee representatives from 32 countries- using surveymonkey questionnaire.

Industry standard encryption technology utilisied.

27 respondent countries. Response rate 84.4% In many countries CAP and General Adult Psychiatry training were not separate Variable availability of training posts (surplus posts 23%, no posts/ long waits 19.2%) Duration of training: 3 years (19.2%),4 years (23.1%), 5 years (26.9%). In 35% of countries CAP training was entirely separate from commencement of training. In 40%, entry to CAP training occurred after training in general adult psychiatry. Trainees in 61.5% of respondent countries indicate their intention to specialise in CAP before entering training in psychiatry; 15% of trainees can indicate this at any time.

This is a survey of trainee representatives to the EFPT of ten items related to CAP training experiences. It highlights significant differences in training experiences in 27 respondent countries. From 2010 the EFPT aims to record detailed information on CAP training yearly. CAP trainees are an integral part of EFPT, and there are specific areas of needs in CAP training.

It has been observed that children with auditory hallucinations (AH) may develop secondary delusional ideation, which is thought to increase the risk of need for care and patient status. Little is known about the cognitive vulnerabilities mediating delusion formation in children experiencing perceptual anomalies like AH. The ability to correctly interpret another person's intentions or emotions, referred to as mentalizing ability or ‘theory of mind’ (ToM), is shown to be impaired in children with psychotic symptoms and to be associated with delusional ideation in individuals at risk. A direct link between mentalizing ability and delusions is suggested by their presentation as alterations in social inference.

To examine the cognitive vulnerabilities mediating delusion formation in children presenting with AH.

In a sample of 259 12- and 13-year-old children, AH, delusional experiences (’mind reading’,’paranoid ideas’ and’receiving media messages’) and theory of mind (ToM) were assessed, in order to examine the hypothesized moderating role of ToM in delusion formation.

The risk of delusion formation was significantly higher in AH children with lower ToM skills (OR = 2.9, 95% CI 1.3–6.4, P = 0.008), compared to AH children with higher ToM skills (OR = 1.7, 95% CI 0.9–3.4, P = 0.11).

Our results suggest that better mentalizing abilities confer protection against developing full-blown psychosis in children experiencing perceptual anomalies.

Epidemiological data indicate that anxiety disorders are the most common childhood disorders and phobias are the most common form of anxiety disorders.

To identify the most common phobias in children and adolescents and to determine the prevalence, age distribution, and socio-demographic correlates of phobias.

A cross sectional study

Public and Private schools of the Ministry of Education, State of Qatar

A total of 2188 children and adolescents aged 6 to 18 years were approached and 1703 (77.8%) students participated in this study.

The questionnaire included socio-demographic information, extra curricular activities and hobbies, behaviour at home and various phobic fears. Psychiatrists determined the definitive diagnosis for various phobias by checking and screening their symptoms.

Of the studied subjects, 44% were males and 56% were females. The overall prevalence of phobia in children and adolescents was 19.7%. Among children with phobia, females had higher rates of phobias (62.4% vs 37.6%) than males. Social phobia (12.7%) was the commonest phobia found followed by Agoraphobia (8.6%). Secondary school children were highly afflicted with social phobia (14.9%), agoraphobia (11.7%) and specific phobia (9.6%), while preparatory students (8.3%) were more likely to have’medical’ phobia (fear of physical illness, medical tests and procedures). A significant difference was observed between the age groups in children with agoraphobia (p = 0.002).

The overall prevalence of phobia in children and adolescents in Qatar was higher, with the most common phobias observed being social phobia, agoraphobia and specific phobia.

In the adolescence, girls are often preoccupied with body image, express discontent with their figure, body weight and want to lose weight.

Our objective was to inquire eating attitudes and habits among female adolescents.

Survey research carried out among female adolescents, age of 16 – 17, in four secondary schools in Banja Luka (economic, medical, agricultural and grammar school). Survey questionnaire EAT-26, modified by author, was used. The response rate was 1301 (90.3%) out of 1441 (total number of pupils in first and second grade of schools).

In inquired secondary schools 90 girls (6.9%) out of 1301 have body mass index < 18,5 kg/m2. About 26.9% of all respondents, want to be thinner, while 37.3% never want to be thinner, with statically significant difference (df = 834; T = 7.94; p < 0.01).

With 46.25% of all respondents with BMI < 18.5 kg/m2 and 43.6% female students with an optimal BMI said they never eat dietary food with statistically significant difference (V = 73, T = 2.05, < 0.05) compared to girls with a BMI > 25 kg/m2. Diet foods are not eaten ever 48.6% of respondents with a statistically significant difference compared to those who do it sometimes (20.5%)

Unrealistic perception of “body-image” may bring different health-damaging risks. They varied from inadequate dieting attempts to inability of recognizing and preventing overweight.

In order to that previously acquired knowledge and positive attitudes about nutrition necessary to introduce this subject within the school curriculum.

Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) affects up to 5% of the school-aged children and adolescents, and to up 3% of the adults. The condition is dramatically more frequent in parents of affected children (about 30% of prevalence), therefore crediting the genetic transmission of the disorder.

Our study was designed to increase the awareness of the disorder among teachers and parents, and to collect data for validating available rating scales for the French general population.

To include up to 200 children for each year of age ranging for 5 to 18, and to collect data about their behaviour at school (rated by teachers) and at home (rated by parents). Additionally, questionnaires were filled out by the parents to rate their own symptoms. Comorbidity and related disorders were also a concern.

A sample of schools was randomly selected in the city of Nice (France) and up to 4 children were randomly selected in each class. The children were included only after they and their parents gave their informed consent. Teachers rated the child behaviour on a secured website. Paper questionnaires were scanned for optical recognition.

In three months, 715 children were included and 847 parents returned their questionnaires. Preliminary analyses show that ADHD rating scales can be accurately scored by teachers and parents. References intervals need to be computed with regard of age and gender, for both children and adults.

The ChiP-ARD study will be reconducted in 2010-2011 to reach our original objective of 2600 children.

Aripiprazole has been shown to be effective in children and adolescents with Schizophrenia spectrum disorders and few adverse effects have been reported. However, little is known about the effectiveness of aripiprazole in the treatment of pediatric patients with Intellectual Disabilities (ID) and Schizophrenia.

To expand our knowledge on the use of aripiprazole in treating adolescents with ID for Schizophrenia.

Using a retrospective review, one female and one male adolescent inpatient (11.5 and 14 years old; Wechsler Scale of Intelligence full intelligence quotient equal to 61 and 38, respectively) with a diagnosis of Schizophrenia received aripiprazole 15 mg/day and were monitored for six weeks. The primary outcome was the Positive and Negative Symptom Scale (PANSS) from baseline to endpoint.

There was a significant reduction in the overall PANSS score in both adolescents with a marked decrease in negative symptoms (blunted affect, emotional withdrawal, poor rapport, passive/ apathetic social withdrawal, difficulty in abstract thinking, lack of spontaneity and flow of conversation, and stereotyped thinking). Among symptoms of general psychopathology, guilt feelings, motor retardation and poor attention were mostly improved. In both cases, positive and negative subscales showed significant reductions after week four. Female inpatient's weight increased from 49.5 Kg to 50 kg, while male inpatient's weight remained stable (75 kg) during monitoring. No other side effect (e.g. Q-T-corrected interval alterations, hyperprolactinemia, extrapyramidal symptoms) was developed.

Aripiprazole could be considered as a potential therapeutic agent for adolescents with ID and Schizophrenia, especially when negative symptoms are of major concern.

The purpose of this study is to investigate issues related to clinical analysis of patients with IAD (internet addiction disorder), we focusing on clinical, demographic features, and comorbidities.

The survey included a representative sample of 543 school students of ages 11 to 18. All of the students answered to a questionnaire comprising 36 questions related to computer activities. Ten girls and 22 boys constituted the sample of Internet addicts. All participants were diagnosed based on psychiatric diagnostic interview and psychiatric scales.

Clinical diagnoses included depression 25%, attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder 18,75%, social fobia 15,62%, generalized anxiety disorder 12,5%, obsessive compulsive disorder 6,25%, comportamental disorder 15,62%, 6,25% met criteria for eating disorder. Severity measures of IAD were associated with higher perception of family disability (P ≤ .001)

With these results, it seems reasonable to suggest that effective evaluation of, and treatment for comorbidities disorders is required for students with Internet addiction. Effective management of psychiatric symptoms may indirectly correct pathological Internet use.

A suitable body pattern is necessary for health. A wrong development of it could determine disorders in mental and physical areas (Ballesteros, 1982). To be active since childhood constitutes a primary factor for developing a good Body Mass Index (BMI) and body image, the main components of body pattern (Piéron, 2005).

To evaluate levels of physical activity (PA) and the relation with body pattern for the prevention of disorders in spanish youth.

3685 subjects aged 8 to 24 were selected from various educational institutions of Granada, Spain. Researchers took antropomethric measurements and submitted pupils to IPAQ questionnaire (Booth, 2000) and Body Image Assessment Scale (Thompson & Grey, 1995).

Results showed that PA levels constantly decrease from Primary School until University (p = .001), and BMI increased at the same time. Body image kept constant values at each age range. We found significative correlations between PA and BMI and between BMI and body image (p = .001), but not between PA and body image.

This lack of correlation could mean that subjects have a wrong perception of their body, since they consider themselves healthy despite their BMI raise. This could explain the reduction of practice. This situation could determine the progressive onset of sedentary behaviors and mental disorders as anorexia or bulimia. In the future, Physical Education teachers should aim their classes at developing the perception of body through PA, to make pupils be active and to give them the basis for a suitable construction of body pattern.

This study aimed at determining the demographic, personality and psychopathology characteristic of runaway girls from home in Shiraz.

Fifty girls who escaped from home and referred to the Women's Social Emergency and Rehabilitant Centre were compared with fifty girls who lived with their parents. They were assessed by semi-structured interview based on DSMIV-TR criteria, demographic questionnaire, GHQ-28 and EPQ-R-106.

The results showed that %86 of the runaway girls were resident in cities, and %40 of them was the first child of the family. Considering the familial stability, addicted parents, death and divorce of parents; the runaway girls did not have significant differences with control group, although they had significant differences in psychiatric disorders and physical abuse. Also they had more problems in social function and extroversion, lying, addiction and crime seeking.

The high prevalence of psychopathology and social victims of the runaway girls demands serious attention by the non-governmental and governmental organizations for increasing their mental health and social supports.

β-thalassemia major and its complications carry a significant psychological impact, causing emotional burden, hopelessness, and difficulty with social integration.

Cross-sectional study which includes thirty adolescents with diagnosis of thalassemia & another group of thirty adolescents from gastrointestinal outpatient clinic were selected. All participants were subjected to Semi structured interview, Patient Health Questionnaire, Hospital Anxiety Depression Scale, Middlesex Hospital Questionnaire, and McGill Quality of Life Questionnaire.

Thalassemic adolescents shows statistically significant higher depression (p < 0.001), and higher anxiety (p < 0.001) compared to adolescents from gastrointestinal outpatient clinic. There was highly statistical significant difference regarding Middlesex Hospital Questionnaire (p < 0.001), and McGill Quality of Life Questionnaire. (p < 0.001).

Depressive and anxiety disorders were more prevalent among adolescents with thalassemia. Also, among the same group there was higher degree of Free Floating Anxiety, Phobic Anxiety, Obsessive Symptoms, Somatic Symptoms, Depressive Symptoms, and hysteria. Quality of life was highly affected among adolescents with thalassemia.

Studies have shown an association between parental distress and caretaking of children with cognitive delays. There is little data in developing countries, such as Pakistan, concerning the impact of raising children with Mental Retardation, upon the quality of parent functioning and risk for psychopathology.

To assess the level of distress and risk for psychopathology among parents of children with Mental Retardation (MR).

This was prospective study conducted at a tertiary care hospital in Pakistan. Participants were 200 parents (100 fathers/100 mothers) of 100 children with the diagnosis of MR. Parents were administered Self Report Questionnaire 20 (SRQ 20) and the Quality of Life BREF (QOL BREF).

Mean age for mothers was 40.2 years while fathers was 42.9 years. The mean age of children was 10.5 years (30% females/70% males) with 25% mild MR, 42% moderate MR, 20% severe MR and 13% profound MR. On SRQ 20, 25% mothers and 43% fathers scored above the cut off indicating possible psychiatric disorder. Mean QOL domain scores were for mothers (M) and fathers (F): M 13.2/ F 13.9 for physical health; M13.1 / F 13.7 for psychological health; M 13.9 / F 13.9 for social relationships, M 13.4 / F 14.8 for environment.

Parents of children with MR are at higher risk for psychopathology, needing mental health assessment.

Fathers scores on the SRQ reflect more distress and psychiatric symptoms than mothers SRQ scores.

Limitations include lack of comparison group and small sample size.

ADHD is often unrecognised and untreated, particularly in Europe. There is a need for improved understanding of ADHD in adults and its impact on patients across the lifespan. Registries allow for multiple real-world comparisons based on assessment of patients that are typically excluded from clinical studies. Data describing the cost, burden and consequences of ADHD are essential to inform clinicians, regulatory agencies, payers and patients about the condition.

To address the gaps in our current understanding of the care and cost of treating adult patients with ADHD by documenting real-life experiences.

A prospective, longitudinal, observational study of adults > 18 years with ADHD, designed to follow 2500 patients in the USA, UK, Germany, The Netherlands and Canada for a minimum of 5 years.

In year one, patients will be asked questions regarding:

the impact of childhood diagnosis and/or treatment on adult ADHD, long- and short-term treatment patterns and their consequences, differences between ADHD treatments, the relationship between disease severity and compliance with treatment, increased tendency to risk behaviour/substance abuse, costs.

In subsequent years, topics may be expanded to include the transition into adulthood and healthcare access for young adults.

Ten sites are currently recruiting, with 45 patients enrolled up to 7 October 2010. Challenges associated with initiating a global registry in North America and Europe will be discussed.

Data generated from CLEAR will help improve the global understanding of the longitudinal impact of ADHD.

Supported by Shire Development, Inc.

Risperidone is an atypical antipsychotic agent, despite its many advantages and widespread use, there is increasing attention to the adverse effects associated with long-term exposure to this drug.We aimed to investigate the changes in the liver function tests (LFTs) associated with one year risperidone treatment in children and adolescents.

One hundred youths who treated with risperidone more than one year were included in the study. For this study, patients’ baseline and follow-up weight and hepatobiliary function tests including alanine aminotransferases(ALT) and aspartat aminotransferases (AST), gamma gluatamyl transerase (GGT), alkaline phosphatase (ALP) and serum bilirubin levels were measured baseline, after the treatment period of six months and one year.

Asymptomatic liver function test abnormalities mostly ALP elevation was found in subjects treated with risperidone. The mean levels of liver enzymes and billuribin of the patients were significantly higher after one year of treatment than the baseline. Also the mean levels of liver enzymes and billuribin of the patients were significantly higher after one year of treatment than the six months. There was significant association between changes in weight, risperidone dose and liver enzymes and billuribin levels.

These findings suggest that risperidone treatment in the long term commonly leads to liver function changes however it rarely may induce a serious hepatic toxicity at therapeutic doses in children and adolescents.

We doesn’t have any screening tool in our language or even validated.

To evaluate advantages of the using of SDQ to screening for disorders and symptomatic manifestations in a clinical work and community sample.

To compare the data from the filled questionnaires between the parents and children's, between the child cases referred in CHAMHU and children's during the systematic controls visits, to be seen correlations amongst the scores of scales and symptoms items and diagnoses.

Referred cases to the clinic have been offered to fill out SDQ questionnaire with the supplement impact. From 358 new cases only 43% of the cases have been involved. Based on the medical systematic visits in the schools (2008) was extracted a randomized sample for comparing. All data has been analyzed by SPSS 17.0.

184 questionnaires have been filled out. SDQ have showed one internal consistence with the coefficient Cronbach’s Alpha from 0.721. Within cases were filled out both from parents and children's, SDQ have proved the reporting differences between parents and children's, but without any significant correlations with diagnoses and symptoms items with the diagnoses. SDQ showed the useful differences regarding the reports amongst the referred clinical cases and school cases without any significant correlation.

SDQ can be one of the screening tools, useful in the clinical setting and also in the community, despite the limitation which can have. Intellectual level of the parents within the country as ours can be possible obstacles.

The purpose of this study was to investigation the relationship between the dimensions of Family communication patterns (conversation orientation and conformity orientation) with adolescents’ locus of control, self esteem, Shyness and communication patterns.

The participant in this study includes 367 students (232 girls and 135 boys) of first and second graders in high school in the first region of Tehran, that were chosen by available sampling method and filled the Revised family communication patterns questionnaire (RFCP), Levenson locus of control scale (IPC), Rosenberg self esteem questionnaire, shyness questionnaire of Cheeck and Buss and communication skills questionnaire. Regression analysis was used to predict each of the criterion variables by Dimensions of family communication patterns.

The regression analysis result revealed that the Family conversation orientation has a positive and significant relationship with internal locus of control, high self esteem and communication skills and predicts them positively. Also Family conformity orientation has a positive and significant relationship with external locus of control and shyness and predicts them positively. And has a significant negative relationship with self esteem and predicts it negatively.

The finding of present research show that the families with conversation orientation, who have the free, comfortable and rich relationships as a need of joyful family life, lead to the formation of internal locus of control, higher self esteem, less shyness and more communication patterns in children in comparison with the families with conformity orientation.