Adolescent Psychiatry - Volume 5, Issue 4, 2015

Background: Deliberate Foreign Body Ingestion (DFBI) is a form of non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI). DFBI is a problem in longer-term care psychiatric facilities but is poorly detailed in clinical and general pediatric populations. Hopefulness is a construct that may prove useful in formulating diagnosis and treatment for youth with DFBI. Methods: Adolescents ages 11-18 years from an adolescent medicine clinic and a psychiatr Read More

Background and goals: Research on adolescent personality development has been limited and often bases its premises on studies of adult behavior. Growing awareness of the vicissitudes of adolescent development details the developmental pathway between childhood and adulthood and recognizes its unique dimensions. There has been a five-fold increase in empirical studies examining borderline personality disorder (BP Read More

Background: Metacognitive difficulties are frequent among youth with a psychiatric disorder. The present study evaluates the effectiveness of a dramatic writing workshop on the metacognition of youth aged from 14 to 25 years, the majority presenting a stabilized psychiatric disorder. Methods: Twenty-four youth were recruited for the study, 12 youth who received the workshop and 12 who did not. Among each group o Read More

Background/Objective: This study was needed to determine if religious retreats, particularly extended three-day retreats, had any impact on the disruptive behavior of incarcerated adolescents attending the retreat compared to those who did not attend. Method: The authors compared the number of Behavior Time-Outs (BTOs) assigned by staff (a measure of disruptive behaviors) to those attending the retreat and to those Read More

Background: Narcolepsy is a chronic neurological disorder characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness, cataplexy, hypnagogic and/or hypnopompic hallucinations, and sleep paralysis. Due to symptom overlap and comorbidity between narcolepsy and other psychiatric disorders, narcolepsy in children and adolescents can be easily misdiagnosed. Diagnostic delay is common. Method: We review the clinical present Read More

Background/Objective: Several case reports have described psychosis or mania in patients abusing dextromethorphan. In each of the cases of mania, the symptoms resolved rapidly after the dextromethorphan was metabolized. To our knowledge, no cases have been reported of an underlying diagnosis of bipolar disorder that has been revealed by abuse of dextromethorphan. This report describes such a possible ca Read More

Background: Once perceived to be rare in childhood, obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) is now recognized to be fairly common among children and adolescents. However, lack of recognition of the disorder and delays in treatment continue to be frequent. The occurrence of unusual or unfamiliar symptoms may be one of the reasons for under-detection of OCD. Obsessions related to romantic relationships have been de Read More