Do They Grow Out of It?

Long-Term Outcomes of Childhood Disorders

Edited by Lily Hechtman, M.D., F.R.C.P.C.

1996
304 Pages
Editorial Reviews

ISBN 978-0-88048-703-0
Item #8703

List Price: $73.00
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Description
Contents
Editorial Reviews
About the Authors

What happens to children with psychiatric disorders as they mature? Many children experience attention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder, depression, suicidal behavior, anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, schizophrenia, and conduct disorder. Long-term outcome of childhood disorders is becoming increasingly more important as clinicians, teachers, and parents take a broader, more comprehensive view of childhood disorders, their natural history, their developmental impact, later adolescent and adult functioning, and their possible multigenerational consequences.

Developmental factors pertaining to the child, such as the age at onset and severity of the disorder, other comorbid conditions, the child's sex and IQ, and physical or neurological health, all seem important in influencing outcome. In addition, social factors, such as socioeconomic status, family composition, mental health of parents, family functioning, and child-rearing practices seem to affect outcome. Finally, the impact of treatment is also crucial because it provides a picture of long-term efficacy of various approaches.

Do They Grow Out of It? Long-Term Outcomes of Childhood Disorders is a comprehensive review of this important area that familiarizes clinicians and others about long-term outcomes of childhood disorders. This book will guide their present interventions, which will improve long-term outcome in the future. Each chapter is written by a professional with expertise in both the disorder and its long-term sequelae. The authors critically review available information on long-term outcome of the particular childhood disorder; what factors, particularly treatments, influence this outcome; and what future research or clinical directions appear promising.

Research issues in longitudinal studies. Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Comorbidity in outcome of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. Conduct disorder. Childhood depression. Suicidal behavior. Childhood anxiety disorders. Obsessive-compulsive disorder. Pervasive developmental, psychotic, and allied disorders. Childhood speech and language disorders. Clinical issues in longitudinal research. Index.

Lily Hechtman, M.D., F.R.C.P.C., is Director of Research in the Division of Child Psychiatry and Professor of Pediatrics and Psychiatry at McGill University. She is also Director of Adolescent Services and Staff Psychiatrist at Montreal Children's Hospital in Montreal, Canada.

The chapters include reviews of the long-term outcomes, the research and the longitudinal studies. The writing is clear, the coverage meticulous but spare. I recommend it highly as a resource and for testing reality.—News for Women In Psychiatry

A great strength of the book is that it does exactly what it promises, reviewing the longitudinal course of several important disorders in childhood. This is a great accomplishment, and the reviews will help clinicians to thing about the long-term treatment needs of their patients, and to advise parents of the need for continued intervention, treatment, and surveillance. . . . I would recommend the book highly as an extremely useful reference.—Bulletin of the Menninger Clinic

This is an excellent and scholarly multi-author book of generally uniform standard that reviews what we have learned of the long-term outcome of childhood psychopathology. . . . This is an excellent book for psychiatrists in training during their child psychiatry clinical placement, and also should be read by those responsible for planning community mental health promotion programs or undertaking epidemiological mental health research.—Australian and New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry

Do They Grow Out of It? is a terrific book. We all want to know how our cases will turn out. In this book, well-known experts describe outcomes and their influences. The answers vary across and within each disorder, and depend of course on the initial diagnosis as well as the patients' coping skills, their family, and economic status as well as treatment. One chapter even goes beyond treatment to discuss the urgent need for prevention. This book fills a niche for professionals and the lay public and is remarkably accessible for all of us.—Judith L. Rapoport, M.D., Chief, Child Psychiatry Branch, National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, Maryland

Child psychiatry has always been a developmental specialty. However, it has not always been a scientific specialty. Thus, it is only in the last fifteen years for so that a solid database has accumulated on the long term outcome of childhood onset disorders. This volume is the most comprehensive collection of this database. It should be read by any professional dealing with child and adolescent patients.—Dennis P. Cantwell, M.D., Joseph Campbell Professor of Child Psychiatry, University of California, Los Angeles

In this book, a number of highly respected authors describe the long-term outcome of specific psychiatric childhood disorders or symptom constellations. The book is a testimony to the increasingly sophisticated epidemiological and clinical research methodologies that have been employed in the study of child psychiatric disorders. This is an impressive book, reporting both on the complex continuities of discontinuities of psychiatric conditions in children's lives and on the remarkable maturation of our specialty.—Klaus Minde, M.D., F.R.C.P. C., Director, Department of Psychiatry, Montreal Children's Hospital, Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics, Head, Division of Child Psychiatry, McGill University

This book . . . is a good source for clinicians and mental professionals as a quick, readable overview of this existing relevant literature, and its limitations.—Psychiatric Services

Child psychiatric clinicians will find this book the most comprehensive review of all the databases available for understanding the long-term outcomes of major childhood disorders.—Psychiatric Times

Those interested in long-term effects without an extended critique of the methodological issues underlying many of the studies or the mediative effects of treatment will find this a valuable contribution to the literature.—Readings: A Journal of Reviews and Commentary in Mental Health

What this book provides, however, is a wealth of detail about the various studies in each area, with attention to factors that may affect outcome. The authors of each chapter are acknowledged experts in their areas, having all contributed to follow-up studies of children and adolescents with emotional and behavioral disorders. Although the book will be of greatest interest to mental health professionals, it may also be useful to primary care physicians who counsel families with affected children. It is a must read for all child and adolescent mental health professionals.—The New England Journal of Medicine