Friday Poster Presentations at AACAP 2010

Five poster presentations focusing on the evaluation and treatment of psychiatric disorders in children and adolescents were presented on Friday, Oct. 29, at the AACAP 57th Annual Meeting. Below, each is summarized.

When Parents and Teacher Ratings Don’t Agree: the TRAILS StudyPresenters: David Rettew, MD, Floor van Oort, PhD, Frank Verhulst, MD, PhD, Jan Buitelaar, MD, PhD, Johan Ormel, PhD, Catharina Hartman, PhD, Rene Veenstra, PhD, Robert Althoff, MD, PhD, and James Hudziak, MD

Purpose: To determine levels of disagreement in child ratings between parents and teachers, and to examine possible sources of this disagreement, using data from the Tracking Adolescent Individual Lives Survey (TRAILS), a large community-based prospective study of Dutch adolescents.

Results: Researchers determined that it is more common for externalizing problems to be reported only in one domain (school versus home) than in both, especially for aggression and rule-breaking behavior, and that in comparison to school-specific problems, home-specific issues were found to be related to female sex, higher parental stress, and lower levels of child temperament dimension of effort control. Therefore, efforts to address some of these factors directly may lessen both the “real” and perceived disturbances in the children as part of an overall family-based treatment approach.

Age-Grouped Differences in Bipolar ManiaPresenters: DJ Safer, JM Zito, PhD, and AM Safer, PhD

Purpose: To compare Young Mania Rating Scale (YMRS) scores between youth and adults based in antipsychotic clinical trial data at baseline and at treatment endpoint.

Results: Age-grouped YMRS item assessments of bipolar mania in antipsychotic trials showed that symptoms of behavioral disinhibition—including aggression, irritability and rapid speech—were most prominent in youth, whereas disordered thought content was paramount in adults

A Prospective Open-Label Trial of Quetiapine Monotherapy in Preschool and School Aged Children with Bipolar Spectrum DisorderPresenters: Gagan Joshi, MD, Carter Petty, Janet Wozniak, MD, Stephen Faraone, PhD, Robert Doyle, MD, Anna Georgiapoulos, MD, Paul Hammerness, MD, Sarah Walls, Breanna Glaeser, Kristin Brethel, Dayna Yorks, and Joseph Biederman

Purpose: To determine the safety, tolerability, and effectiveness of quetiapine for the treatment of preschool (age 4-6 years) and school age children (age 6-15 years) with bipolar spectrum disorders.

Results: Acute treatment with quetiapine was associated with a rapid reduction in manic symptoms in both preschool and school age children with bipolar spectrum disorders. Additionally, preschool age children demonstrated small but significant effects in terms of depression, anxiety, and ADHD, said researchers, noting that short-term treatment with quetiapine monotherapy was “relatively well tolerated.”

Long-term Consequences of Height, Weight, Heart Rate, and Blood Pressure in Children Treated with StimulantsPresenters: Ulrich Brandstetter, MD, and Elisabeth Fernell, PhD, MD

Purpose: To evaluate consequences for weight, height, heart rate, and blood pressure in children and adolescents with ADHD, treated pharmacologically with stimulants.

Results: The group found that cardiovascular parameters remained stable over a period of three years; the change in BMI during the follow-up period may reflect more normalized eating habits in a subgroup of children receiving pharmacological treatment for ADHD, in addition to other inventions.

Psychiatric Comorbidity in Adolescents with a Gender Identity DisorderPresenters: Annelou de Vries, PhD, Theo Doreleijers, MD, PhD, Thomas D. Steensma, MSc, and Peggy Cohen-Kettenis, PhD

Purpose: To examine the prevalence rates of gender identity disorders (GID) in adolescents, and the types of comorbid psychiatric disorders in gender dysphoric adolescents.

Results: In the study, the majority of the adolescents with GID were not found to have any comorbid psychiatric disorder, despite their increased suffering from the incongruence between experienced and assigned gender at the start of puberty. However, a significant minority of gender dysphoric adolescents is in need of specific care, and natal males appear to require more attention than natal females.