Overview

Age at onset studies have been an important approach to understanding disease across all medical specialties. Over the last few decades, genetic research has led to the identification of unique genes and, in some cases, physiologically different disorders. These advances bring us closer to identifying genetic vulnerability and implementing prevention programs for psychopathology. Childhood Onset of """"Adult"""" Psychopathology: Clinical and Research Advances provides an understanding of the childhood onsets of adult psychiatric disorders, including when and in what sequence psychiatric disorders begin in childhood, and how these disorders evolve over the life span. This book examines ; Studies on the growing volume of data on very early forms of depression, criminality, alcoholism, schizophrenia, and anxiety; Genetics, evolution, and the significance of age at onset in terms of individual variability and the course of disease; The biological manner in which early-onset disorders progress; New insights into the disease etiology of schizophrenia and the neurodevelopmental hypothesis; The long-debated subject of whether depressive disorder in preadolescent children is the same as depressive disorder in adults and studies of individuals at risk for disorders of anxiety and depression; The implications for prevention of adult psychiatric disorders, alcoholism, and antisocial personality disorder Complete with extensive references and tables, this text provides practitioners with a better understanding of adult psychopathology and insight into early detection and prevention methods.

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9780880488211

Table of Contents

Reviews

<p> The developmental perspective that dominated psychoanalytic theory was eclipsed a quarter of a century age with ascendance of phenomenologic psychiatry with its emphasis on categorical diagnosis. Childhood Onset of Adult Psychopathology edited by the eminent NIMH Child Psychiatrist, Judith Rapoport M.D., does much to redress this imbalance by focusing upon the developmental antecedents of mental illness and the clues derived from early onset of severe mental disorders. This new developmental perspective, grounded in neurobiology, emphasizes the interaction between genetic and environmental risk factors and provides scientific foundations for preventive interventions. Each chapter is written by a world renowned group of experts in covering genetic mechanisms, neurodevelopmental pathways, specific disorders and prevention. -- Joseph T. Coyle, M.D., Eben S. Draper Professor of Psychiatry and of Neuroscience, Chairman, Consolidated Department of Psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts

<p> Judy Rapoport, the outstanding Chief of the NIMH Child Psychiatry Branch, has put us all in her debt by assembling and editing a book on the earliest forms of psychiatric disorders resembling those seen in adults: depression, schizophrenia, anxiety, alcoholism and criminality. Are early onset cases no more than random variation of all cases around a mean age of onset? Or do they represent the influence of specific genetic or environmental factors? Might they reflect genetic anticipation (as it is seen in Fragile-X mental retardation)? The answers aren't in but the issues are thoughtfully discussed in this excellent volume. The remarkable NIMH study of childhood-onset schizophrenia, early results of which are briefly described in Dr. Rapoport's chapter, will be a landmark in psychiatry. All-in-all, this is a first-rate publication, of interest to clinicians as well as investigators. -- Leon Eisenberg, M.D., Presley Professor of Social Medicine, and Professor of Psychiatry, Emeritus

Author Information

Judith L. Rapoport, M.D. is Chief of the Child Psychiatry Branch at the National Institute of Mental Health in Bethesda, Maryland. Dr. Rapoport is a graduate of Swarthmore College and Harvard Medical school. Her clinical training was at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center, and at Children�s Hospital in Washington, DC. Her research training was at the Karolinska Hospital in Stockholm and the Laboratory of Psychology at the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH). Her research has covered several aspects of child psychiatry including diagnosis, childhood hyperactivity, pediatric psychopharmacology and author of three professional books and over two hundred research journal articles. She is currently Chief of the Child Psychiatry Branch, National Institute of Mental Health. Work in her branch on Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder has recently focused on normal and abnormal brain development.

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