A research report submitted to the Faculty of Health Sciences , University of the Witwatersrand in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of the Masters of Science in Medicine in Psychiatry, Johannesburg, 2014 / In the past ten years, there has been an increased awareness about the diagnosis and treatment of psychiatric disorders in childhood. As a consequence, there has been a concomitant increase in the prescription of psychiatric medication for children. Off-label and concomitant medication are particular issues of concern in child psychiatry. In South Africa, there is limited data on paediatric prescribing trends. It is important to know the demographic trends and clinical reasons for medication use in order to assess, plan, improve and budget for children’s mental health care services. The results of this study will give insights into the current prescribing patterns at Tara’s Outpatient Child Clinic (TOCC)

This thesis in part addressed a call by Hodapp, Glidden & Kaiser (2005) to focus on identifying potential mediators and moderators of the relationship between growing up with a sibling with an autism spectrum condition (ASC) and adverse outcomes such as poorer sibling relationship quality (SRQ) and adjustment problems. It attempted to clarify previous inconsistent findings in the literature by considering autism as a dimensional disorder (with traits present on a continuum between the general population and those on the higher end reaching a clinical cut-off for diagnosis of ASC) and focusing on the autistic traits of (mainly) older siblings in a dyad. Specifically, these related to attention to detail, impaired mind reading ability, impaired social skills and impaired imagination. In addition, when looking at families with an ASC child, using a relatively homogenous sample group of typically developing younger siblings (YS) in middle childhood controlled for factors that potentially influenced past mixed findings. Hypotheses were extended to an analogous sample of young adults by asking dyads for both retrospective and current (adult) SRQ and self reported autistic traits. Themes emerging from the actual lived experiences of typically developing younger siblings of children with autism were also considered, and highlighted a number of difficulties faced by these siblings. The quantitative findings indicate that different elements of the social and communication domains relate to negativity compared to positivity in SRQ, and that there is a significant relationship between attention to detail (i.e. the non-social domain) and typical YS adjustment but not between YS adjustment and the social and communication domains. For young adults, reports of higher impairments in imagination were associated with retrospective reports of lower positivity in SRQ, and level of attention to detail was significantly associated with rivalry in adult SRQ. Overall these findings indicate that different autistic traits should be considered as separate influences on SRQ and adjustment.

Access to abstract permanently restricted to Ball State community only. / Access to thesis permanently restricted to Ball State community only. / Department of Educational Psychology

Thesis (Psy. D.)--Rutgers University, 2009. / "Graduate Program in School Psychology." Includes bibliographical references (p. 85-93).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Nevada, Reno, 2006. / "December 2006." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 69-75). Online version available on the World Wide Web.

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Inledning: Inom barn- och ungdomspsykiatrin (BUP) i Stockholms län finns fyra Mellanvårdsmottagningar. Dessa är en förstärkning till Öppenvården och kan arbeta intensivt med familjer i deras hem eller närmiljö. Frågeställningar: Syftet med denna studie är att få ökad förståelse och kunskap om hur familjer, som haft kontakt med BUP Mellanvård, upplever hembesök som arbetsmetod samt hur de upplevt den behandlingsinsats som de fått. Studiens frågeställningar är: Hur upplever familjer hembesök som arbetsmetod? Vilken betydelse har platsen för kontakten? Hur blev relationen mellan behandlare och familj? Hur blev utfallet av behandlingsinsatsen? Metod: Sex familjer deltog i studien som genomfördes med hjälp av semistrukturerade intervjuer. Svaren presenteras i komprimerad och sammanfattad form under respektive område; hemmet, behandlingen och relationerna. Resultat: Resultatet visar att föräldrarna såg främst praktiska fördelar med hembesök, de upplevde det heller inte besvärande att ta emot behandlare i det egna hemmet. Föräldrarna hade överlag mer positiva upplevelser kring hembesöket än vad barnen upplevde, men de tyckte inte att platsen i sig i särskilt stor grad påverkade varken relationerna eller behandlingsinsatsen. De negativa svaren och reflektionerna som kom fram vid intervjuerna rörde främst utfallet av behandlingsinsatsen som helhet. Diskussion: De familjer som vid intervjutillfället fortfarande befann sig i en svår situation ansåg inte att insatsen från BUP Mellanvård varit till hjälp för dem. De uttryckte under intervjun brister som de upplevt i behandlingen och i kontakten med behandlarna, åsikter som de inte hade fört fram under pågående kontakt. Ett utvecklingsarbete inom BUP Mellanvård vore av stor betydelse för att på ett bättre sätt, under pågående behandlingskontakt, kunna fånga familjernas reflektioner och upplevelser. / Introduction: Within child and adolescent psychiatry (BUP) in Stockholm County Council there are four ”Between care” clinics, strengthening the Outpatient services and they work intensively with families in their homes and/or immediate environment.  Questions: The purpose of this study is to increase understanding and knowledge about how families who had contact with BUP ”Between care” experienced home visits and the overall treatment provision they received. The research questions are: How do families experience home visit as a method of providing treatment? How important is location for treatment? How did the relationship between the therapist and the family develop? What was the outcome of the treatment intervention?  Method: Six families participated in the study which carried out using semi-structured interviews. The answers are presented in a condensed and summarized format for the following areas: home, treatment and relationships.  Results: The results showed that parents saw mainly practical advantages of home visits, and did not feel uncomfortable receiving the therapist in their own home. Parents, by and large, had more positive perceptions of the home visits than those experienced by the children, but did not perceive the location to influence either the relationships nor the treatment to a great extent. The negative responses and reflections that emerged during the interviews focused mainly on the outcome of the entire intervention.  Discussion: The families who at the time of the interview were still in a difficult situation did not consider the intervention of BUP ”Between care” helpful to them. During the interview they mentioned shortcomings they experienced in treatment and in their contact with therapists, views that they had not previously expressed during the on-going contact. A development of BUP ”Between care” would be of great importance to better capture families reflections and experiences while undergoing treatment.

Thesis (M.S.)--Boston University

M.Cur. / Please refer to full text to view abstract

Of the 177 wards of the Children's Aid Society between the ages of 6 and 10 years inclusive at the end of 1949, there were 63 who were found to be emotionally disturbed. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the facilities available in this community for the diagnosis and treatment of this group of disturbed children. The overall statistical material for the study was obtained as part of a group project, a group of students having co-operated in recording significant data on a card-index schedule for all children aged 6 - 10 in care during that year. When the group of disturbed children was sifted out of the whole, specific cases were then chosen for more detailed study and illustration. Results from the study show there is a great lack of both diagnostic and treatment facilities in this area to deal adequately with this problem. In addition, there is a need to evaluate certain policies and expand certain resources already existing in the Agency to allow increased efficiency in helping these disturbed children. Greater awareness and more concentrated action in the preventive aspects of this problem would eventually help to decrease the number of children handicapped in this way. / Arts, Faculty of / Social Work, School of / Graduate