Adolescent Psychiatry - Volume 2, Issue 3, 2012

Research over the past decade indicates that adolescents who have experienced childhood maltreatment have more emotional and behavioural disturbances and less socially desirable or adaptive behaviours than typically developing adolescents. These difficulties are consistent with weaknesses in executive functioning skills. Executive functioning (EF), which involves higher order thinking and reasoning skills, is consid Read More

Introduction: Although an important task of adolescence is to explore one's sexuality individually and in relationships, technology today has broadened the ways in which teenagers may engage in such exploration. In combination with lack of insight, poor judgment, and impulsivity, this can lead to sexually risky behavior on the Internet or cell phones, with unanticipated and unintended consequences, such as sexual pred Read More

Interest in the effectiveness of psychological interventions in patients with psychosis has increased in the last 2 decades, and early intervention programs are increasingly common. PIENSA (Programa de Intervencion en Psicosis Adolescente; Intervention Program for Adolescent Psychosis) is a clinical program and pilot study based on previous research into the efficacy of early intervention in preventing relapse and improving Read More

The juvenile justice system's original focus on rehabilitation and avoidance of criminalization for youthful offenders has undergone dramatic changes in the U. S. Nowhere is this more dramatically illustrated than in New York, which is one of only two states that sets its age of criminal responsibility as low as sixteen. It is also part of the minority of states that require juveniles as young as 13 who are charged with certain Read More

Case formulation that incorporates cultural factors is an important clinical tool for use in initial and ongoing treatment with adolescents. Providing culturally-responsive psychotherapy to adolescents requires the therapist to understand the complex cultural context in which adolescents live. Adolescent identity development and psychological functioning are influenced by an evolving matrix of social identities (race, ethnicity, s Read More

Objectives: The objectives were to estimate the prevalence of major depressive disorder in adolescent suicide attempters and to search adolescent suicide attempters' characteristics associated with severe depression. Methods: A cross-sectional comparative study was conducted on two groups of adolescents matched on age, sex and socioeconomic status, during a period of 8 months (April-November 2010). The first group inclu Read More

Objective: Anecdotally, we noticed an increasing number of adolescents evaluated in our psychiatric emergency room after sending an electronic communication (text message, instant message, email, social networking site posting) of suicidality. In this study we aimed to describe key similarities and differences among adolescents who communicated their suicidality to others via electronic versus other means. Method Read More

Objective: The present study aimed to examine the association between hospitalisation for physical disease during infancy, toddlerhood and childhood and risk of mental disorders during adolescence and early adulthood. Method: This was a population-based birth-cohort study of males born between 1980 and 1984 in Western Australia. The observation period began at the age of 12yrs, and lasted until the first diagnosis Read More

Psychoanalytic understanding of normal adolescent development can contribute to our understanding of the psychoanalytic processes unfolding in adult treatment. Empathic understanding of transferences (and countertransferences) and other phenomena hitherto diagnosed as typically “borderline” is thereby facilitated. A brief review of reports specific to the developmental phase of adolescence precedes a clinical case Read More