Background: Quantifying diagnostic transitions across development is needed to estimate the long-term burden of mental illness. This study estimated patterns of diagnostic transitions from childhood to adolescence and from adolescence to early adulthood. Methods: Patterns of diagnostic transitions were estimated using data from three prospective,…

Background: Many disorders in childhood and adolescence were already present in the preschool years. However, there is little empirical research on the prevalence of psychiatric disorders in young children. A true community study using structured diagnostic tools has yet to be published. Methods: All children born in 2003 or 2004 in the city of…

Objective: No longitudinal studies beginning in childhood have estimated the cumulative prevalence of psychiatric illness from childhood into young adulthood. The objective of this study was to estimate the cumulative prevalence of psychiatric disorders by young adulthood and to assess how inclusion of not otherwise specified diagnoses affects…

The last 50 years have witnessed enormous strides in the measurement and classification of child and adolescent psychiatric disorders. Debates about whether we should continue to depend upon a categorical nosology still continue, but we argue that, despite the absence of clear dividing lines between psychiatric disorders and normality and ubiquity…

Background: Most psychosocial risk factors appear to have general rather than specific patterns of association with common childhood and adolescence disorders. However, previous research has typically failed to 1) control for comorbidity among disorders, 2) include a wide range of risk factors, and 3) examine sex by developmental stage effects on…

Objective: To examine potential differences in psychiatric symptoms between parent-bereaved youth (N = 172), youth who experienced the death of another relative (N = 815), and nonbereaved youth (N = 235), aged 11 to 21 years, above and beyond antecedent environmental and individual risk factors. Method: Sociodemographics, family composition, and…

Examined points of entry into mental health service system for children and adolescents and patterns of movement through five service sectors (specialty mental health services, education, general medicine, juvenile justice, child welfare). Education sector plays central role as point of entry. Interagency collaboration among education, specialty…

We review recent research on the presentation, nosology and epidemiology of behavioral and emotional psychiatric disorders in preschool children (children ages 2 through 5 years old), focusing on the five most common groups of childhood psychiatric disorders: attention deficit hyperactivity disorders, oppositional defiant and conduct disorders,…

Background: Both the professional and the general media have recently published concerns about an "epidemic" of child and adolescent depression. Reasons for this concern include (1) increases in antidepressant prescriptions, (2) retrospective recall by successive birth cohorts of adults, (3) rising adolescent suicide rates until 1990,…

Objective: To review recent progress in child and adolescent psychiatric epidemiology in the area of prevalence and burden. Method: The literature published in the past decade was reviewed under two headings: methods and findings. Results: Methods for assessing the prevalence and community burden of child and adolescent psychiatric disorders have…