Thursday, June 23, 2005

Accurate Diagnosis and Methodical Treatment Approach Important In the Management of OCD in Children and Adolescents Drug and Therapy Perspectives article at Medscape - "Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) causing clinical impairment can occur in up to 3% of children and adolescents, while a larger proportion have subthreshold symptoms that are, nevertheless, noticeable. The most common obsessions are fears of contamination and aggressive/sexual behaviour while the most common compulsions are repeating, ordering compulsions and washing rituals. In terms of pharmacological treatment, selective serotonin (5-hydroxytryptamine; 5-HT) reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) are currently the drugs with the greatest benefit-to-risk ratio in the treatment of childhood OCD and are the agents of first choice ..."  
  

Problem Behaviors In Teens May Signal Later Illness  Psychiatric News story based on a study in the American Journal of Psychiatry - "Adolescents who engage in problem behaviors before age 15 are at high risk of developing mental disorders by adulthood. These disorders range from substance abuse to major depression to antisocial personality. It should come as no surprise that people who smoked as adolescents often become nicotine dependent as adults, or that people who were in trouble with the police as adolescents show signs of antisocial personality disorder as adults. It may be more surprising, however, that people who engaged in specific problem behaviors as adolescents are at risk, as adults, not just for related mental disorders, but for a more generalized psychopathology."