Elva Poznanski

Childhood depression. A longitudinal perspective.

Abstract Ten children described as affectively depressed in childhood were reevaluated on an average of 6 1/2 years later. At this time, 50 percent were clinically depressed and their behavior style more closely resembled the adult depressive than it had in childhood. Dependency appeared more prominent while aggressivity had decreased. Continuing parental deprivation and rejection appeared to correlate with the outcome while broken homes and parental loss in themselves were not predictive of depression continuing into adolescence and young adulthood.

The Use of the Research Diagnostic Criteria (RDC) for Depression in Adolescent Psychiatric Inpatients

Lack of common diagnostic terminology and questions about the reliability of diagnosis in adolescents have inhibited investigation of depression in this age group. The Research Diagnostic Criteria (RDC), which are now widely used in research in adult psychiatry, were applied to a group of adolescent psychiatric inpatients. Nine of 33 or 27% fulfilled criteria for Major Depressive Disorder. The Hamilton Rating Scale for Depression and the Carroll Self-Rating Scale for Depression, also used in studies of adults, were used. Acceptable reliability with the Hamilton was demonstrated while questions were raised concerning the use of the self-rating scale alone in this group. Further reliability and validity studies for the diagnosis and interview methods are needed.

A depression rating scale for children

A rating scale is needed for clinical and research studies of depression in childhood. A Childrens Depression Rating Scale (CDRS) was devised and tested on 30 inpatient children in a medical hospital. A high correlation was found between the global ratings by two psychiatrists of the severity of depression and the scores on the CDRS. The items on the CDRS which had the highest correlation with a global rating of depression were social withdrawal, capacity for fun, irritability, schoolwork, expressive communication, general somatic features, hypoactivity, and depressed mood. The syndrome of depression in childhood can be characterized and rated primarily by observed behaviors.

Psychiatric Difficulties in Siblings of Handicapped Children

Because handicaps are long-term problems, they can affect the emotional growth and development of the other children in the household. Child psychiatrists see more siblings of handicapped children than handicapped children themselves.

Hyperkinetic syndrome: The role of depression

The hyperkinetic syndrome is one of many manifestations of minimal brain dysfunction and emotional distrubance. Both physical and psychologic factors can be seen in its etiology. Depression has often been found to be related to hyperkinesis. The children described in this study give ample support to the frequency of this relationship. Some preliminary hypotheses are also drawn about the dynamics of the relationship between depression and the hyperkinetic syndrome.

Clinical implications of maternal employment: a review of research.

Behind the cries of womens liberation and day-care centers for lower-class working mothers is the very real issue of the effects on the children of maternal employment. The debate about working mothers has raged for at least two decades. One response has been to produce research. Professionals in many disciplines have attempted to assess the correlates and effects of maternal employment, and the fruits of their efforts have appeared in journals of education, social work, sociology, psychology, and psychiatry. The dispersion across disciplines has made it difficult for workers in any single field to acquire an integrated sense of the findings. Several comprehensive reviews of the maternal-employment literature, notably those of Stolz (1960), Maccoby (1958) and Hartley (1961a), have summarized the field up to 1960. But like the research on which they were based, these reviews tended to assume a sociological orientation and, thus failed to address themselves to questions of interest to clinicians. We here review work in this area published since 1960, with, in the interest of completeness, some reference to the earlier period.

A Note on the Female Adolescent's Psychological Reactions to Breast Development

Abstract We review the literature on adolescent breast development, including the physiological sequence of normal female adolescent breast development, and the psychological responses to such development of the adolescent, her family, and her peers. Breast development is a line of developmental growth neglected by psychiatrists, pediatricians, and other health professionals. It is critical that those dealing with adolescents both note and discuss with the female her feelings about her physical development in relationship to herself, her peers (male and female), and her family.

Parental Adaptations to Maternal Employment

Research on maternal employment has been undertaken primarily from the vantage point of its more or less immediate impact on child behavior and socialization. In many studies, social class and family stability variables were found more intimately related to facets of child development than maternal employment per se. Maternal employment, however, has been positively correlated with school achievement and intellectual attainment, with increased dependency, and with problems of sexual identity (Poznanski et al., 1970). Little has yet been done to explicate the processes and mechanisms which account for these findings. This deficiency is, in part, attributable to the kind of questions which have been asked about maternal employment and to the methods by which investigators have attempted to answer them. Most studies of maternal employment have used techniques of data gathering (e.g., questionnaires) that facilitate the inclusion of large numbers of subjects. These methods have the virtue of producing results that are measurably reliable, broadly descriptive, and normative in nature, but they are not well adapted to exploring issues of mechanism and process. While the search for correlations between maternal employment and aspects of the childs personality development is important, it is, by itself, a narrow and incomplete approach. After all, one cannot be certain that any of the relations mentioned above reflect simple causal factors unless one has also considered more complex relationships. One possible indirect relationship between maternal

Transient Superior Mesenteric Artery Syndrome and Psychogenic Vomiting A Case Study in Diagnosis and Management

A well-nourished teen-age girl with psychogenic vomiting demonstrated clinical and radiographic findings of SMAS. Her upper gastrointestinal radiographic studies were normal a few weeks before and three years after the study in which radiographic findings of SMAS were present. Psychologic factors should be considered in SMAS when no condition involving inanition, immobility, abdominal compression, or coexisting abdominal disturbance can be identified.

Orginal ArticleCLINICAL IMPLICATIONS OF MATERNAL EMPLOYMENT: A Review of Research

Behind the cries of womens liberation and day-care centers for lower-class working mothers is the very real issue of the effects on the children of maternal employment. The debate about working mothers has raged for at least two decades. One response has been to produce research. Professionals in many disciplines have attempted to assess the correlates and effects of maternal employment, and the fruits of their efforts have appeared in journals of education, social work, sociology, psychology, and psychiatry. The dispersion across disciplines has made it difficult for workers in any single field to acquire an integrated sense of the findings. Several comprehensive reviews of the maternal-employment literature, notably those of Stolz (1960), Maccoby (1958) and Hartley (1961a), have summarized the field up to 1960. But like the research on which they were based, these reviews tended to assume a sociological orientation and, thus failed to address themselves to questions of interest to clinicians. We here review work in this area published since 1960, with, in the interest of completeness, some reference to the earlier period.