Michael J Gruber

Université Paris Descartes, Paris, Ile-de-France, France

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Publications (29)146.83 Total impact

  • Article: School mental health resources and adolescent mental health service use.
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    ABSTRACT: Although schools are identified as critical for detecting youth mental disorders, little is known about whether the number of mental health providers and types of resources that they offer influence student mental health service use. Such information could inform the development and allocation of appropriate school-based resources to increase service use. This article examines associations of school resources with past-year mental health service use among students with 12-month DSM-IV mental disorders. Data come from the U.S. National Comorbidity Survey Adolescent Supplement (NCS-A), a national survey of adolescent mental health that included 4,445 adolescent-parent pairs in 227 schools in which principals and mental health coordinators completed surveys about school resources and policies for addressing student emotional problems. Adolescents and parents completed the Composite International Diagnostic Interview and reported mental health service use across multiple sectors. Multilevel multivariate regression was used to examine associations of school mental health resources and individual-level service use. Nearly half (45.3%) of adolescents with a 12-month DSM-IV disorder received past-year mental health services. Substantial variation existed in school resources. Increased school engagement in early identification was significantly associated with mental health service use for adolescents with mild/moderate mental and behavior disorders. The ratio of students to mental health providers was not associated with overall service use, but was associated with sector of service use. School mental health resources, particularly those related to early identification, may facilitate mental health service use and may influence sector of service use for youths with DSM disorders.
    Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 05/2013; 52(5):501-10. · 4.98 Impact Factor
  • Article: IRRITABLE MOOD IN ADULT MAJOR DEPRESSIVE DISORDER: RESULTS FROM THE WORLD MENTAL HEALTH SURVEYS.
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    ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Although irritability is a core symptom of DSM-IV major depressive disorder (MDD) for youth but not adults, clinical studies find comparable rates of irritability between nonbipolar depressed adults and youth. Including irritability as a core symptom of adult MDD would allow detection of depression-equivalent syndromes with primary irritability hypothesized to be more common among males than females. We carried out a preliminary examination of this issue using cross-national community-based survey data from 21 countries in the World Mental Health (WMH) Surveys (n = 110,729). METHODS: The assessment of MDD in the WHO Composite International Diagnostic Interview includes one question about persistent irritability. We examined two expansions of the definition of MDD involving this question: (1) cases with dysphoria and/or anhedonia and exactly four of nine Criterion A symptoms plus irritability; and (2) cases with two or more weeks of irritability plus four or more other Criterion A MDD symptoms in the absence of dysphoria or anhedonia. RESULTS: Adding irritability as a tenth Criterion A symptom increased lifetime prevalence by 0.4% (from 11.2 to 11.6%). Adding episodes of persistent irritability increased prevalence by an additional 0.2%. Proportional prevalence increases were significantly higher, but nonetheless small, among males compared to females. Rates of severe role impairment were significantly lower among respondents with this irritable depression who did not meet conventional DSM-IV criteria than those with DSM-IV MDD. CONCLUSION: Although limited by the superficial assessment in this single question on irritability, results do not support expanding adult MDD criteria to include irritable mood.
    Depression and Anxiety 01/2013; · 4.18 Impact Factor
  • Article: Food insecurity and mental disorders in a national sample of u.s. Adolescents.
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    ABSTRACT: To examine whether food insecurity is associated with past-year DSM-IV mental disorders after controlling for standard indicators of family socioeconomic status (SES) in a U.S. national sample of adolescents. Data were drawn from 6,483 adolescent-parent pairs who participated in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication Adolescent Supplement, a national survey of adolescents 13 to 17 years old. Frequency and severity of food insecurity were assessed with questions based on the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Security Scale (standardized to a mean of 0, variance of 1). DSM-IV mental disorders were assessed with the World Health Organization Composite International Diagnostic Interview. Associations of food insecurity with DSM-IV/Composite International Diagnostic Interview diagnoses were estimated with logistic regression models controlling for family SES (parental education, household income, relative deprivation, community-level inequality, and subjective social status). Food insecurity was highest in adolescents with the lowest SES. Controlling simultaneously for other aspects of SES, standardized food insecurity was associated with an increased odds of past-year mood, anxiety, behavior, and substance disorders. A 1 standard deviation increase in food insecurity was associated with a 14% increase in the odds of past-year mental disorder, even after controlling for extreme poverty. The association between food insecurity and mood disorders was strongest in adolescents living in families with a low household income and high relative deprivation. Food insecurity is associated with a wide range of adolescent mental disorders independently of other aspects of SES. Expansion of social programs aimed at decreasing family economic strain might be one useful policy approach for improving youth mental health.
    Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 12/2012; 51(12):1293-303. · 4.98 Impact Factor
  • Article: Diagnostic validity across racial and ethnic groups in the assessment of adolescent DSM-IV disorders.
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    ABSTRACT: We examine differential validity of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) diagnoses assessed by the fully-structured Composite International Diagnostic Interview Version 3.0 (CIDI) among Latino, non-Latino Black, and non-Latino White adolescents in comparison to gold standard diagnoses derived from the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-age Children (K-SADS). Results are based on the National Comorbidity Survey Replication Adolescent Supplement, a national US survey of adolescent mental health. Clinicians re-interviewed 347 adolescent/parent dyads with the K-SADS. Sensitivity and/or specificity of CIDI diagnoses varied significantly by ethnicity/race for four of ten disorders. Modifications to algorithms sometimes reduced bias in prevalence estimates, but at the cost of reducing individual-level concordance. These findings document the importance of assessing fully-structured diagnostic instruments for differential accuracy in ethnic/racial subgroups. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
    International journal of methods in psychiatric research. 11/2012;
  • Article: Childhood Adversities and First Onset of Psychiatric Disorders in a National Sample of US Adolescents.
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    ABSTRACT: CONTEXT Although childhood adversities (CAs) are known to be highly co-occurring, most research examines their associations with psychiatric disorders one at a time. However, recent evidence from adult studies suggests that the associations of multiple CAs with psychiatric disorders are nonadditive, arguing for the importance of multivariate analysis of multiple CAs. To our knowledge, no attempt has been made to perform a similar kind of analysis among children or adolescents. OBJECTIVE To examine the multivariate associations of 12 CAs with first onset of psychiatric disorders in a national sample of US adolescents. DESIGN A US national survey of adolescents (age range, 13-17 years) assessing DSM-IV anxiety, mood, behavior, and substance use disorders and CAs. The CAs include parental loss (death, divorce, and other separations), maltreatment (neglect and physical, sexual, and emotional abuse), and parental maladjustment (violence, criminality, substance abuse, and psychopathology), as well as economic adversity. SETTING Dual-frame household-school samples. PARTICIPANTS In total, 6483 adolescent-parent pairs. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Lifetime DSM-IV disorders assessed using the World Health Organization Composite International Diagnostic Interview. RESULTS Overall, exposure to at least 1 CA was reported by 58.3% of adolescents, among whom 59.7% reported multiple CAs. The CAs reflecting maladaptive family functioning were more strongly associated than other CAs with the onset of psychiatric disorders. The best-fitting model included terms for the type and number of CAs and distinguished between maladaptive family functioning and other CAs. The CAs predicted behavior disorders most strongly and fear disorders least strongly. The joint associations of multiple CAs were subadditive. The population-attributable risk proportions across DSM-IV disorder classes ranged from 15.7% for fear disorders to 40.7% for behavior disorders. The CAs were associated with 28.2% of all onsets of psychiatric disorders. CONCLUSIONS Childhood adversities are common, highly co-occurring, and strongly associated with the onset of psychiatric disorders among US adolescents. The subadditive multivariate associations of CAs with the onset of psychiatric disorders have implications for targeting interventions to reduce exposure to CAs and to mitigate the harmful effects of CAs to improve population mental health.
    Archives of general psychiatry 11/2012; 69(11):1151-60. · 12.26 Impact Factor
  • Article: Role of referrals in mental health service disparities for racial and ethnic minority youth.
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    ABSTRACT: To investigate racial/ethnic differences in teachers' and other adults' identification and/or encouragement of parents to seek treatment for psychiatric problems in their children and to evaluate if and whether identification/encouragement is associated with service use. Data on identification/encouragement to seek treatment for externalizing disorders (i.e., attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, oppositional-defiant disorder, and/or conduct disorder) and internalizing disorders (i.e., major depressive episode/dysthymia and/or separation anxiety disorder) and services used were obtained for 6,112 adolescents (13-17 years of age) in the National Comorbidity Survey Adolescent Supplement. Racial/ethnic differences were examined for Latinos, non-Latino blacks, and non-Latino whites. There were few racial/ethnic differences in rates of youth identification/encouragement and how identification/encouragement related to service use. Only non-Latino black youth with low severity internalizing disorders were less likely to be identified/encouraged to seek services compared with non-Latino white youth with the same characteristics (odds ratio [OR] = 0.4, 95% confidence interval [CI] = [0.2-0.7]). Identification/encouragement increased the likelihood of seeking services for externalizing and internalizing disorders for all youth. However, compared with their non-Latino white counterparts, non-Latino black youth who met criteria for internalizing disorders appeared less likely to have used any services (OR = 0.4, 95%, CI = 0.2-0.7), after adjusting for identification/encouragement, clinical, and sociodemographic characteristics. Non-Latino black youth with internalizing disorders and without identification/encouragement were less likely to use the specialty care sector than their non-Latino white counterparts. In this study of a nationally representative sample of adolescents, almost no ethnic/racial differences in identification/encouragement were found. However, identification/encouragement may increase service use for all youth.
    Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 07/2012; 51(7):703-711.e2. · 4.98 Impact Factor
  • Article: Severity of 12-month DSM-IV disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication Adolescent Supplement.
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    ABSTRACT: Estimates of DSM-IV disorder prevalence are high; stringent criteria to define need for services are desired. To present US national data on the prevalence and sociodemographic correlates of 12-month serious emotional disturbance (SED), defined by the US Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, from the National Comorbidity Survey Replication Adolescent Supplement. The National Comorbidity Survey Replication Adolescent Supplement is a national survey of DSM-IV anxiety, mood, behavior, and substance disorders among US adolescents. Dual-frame household and school samples of US adolescents. Total of 6483 pairs of adolescents aged 13 to 17 (interviews) and parents (questionnaires). The DSM-IV disorders were assessed with the World Health Organization Composite International Diagnostic Interview and validated with blinded clinical interviews based on the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children. Serious emotional disturbance was operationalized as a DSM-IV/Composite International Diagnostic Interview disorder with a score of 50 or less on the Children's Global Assessment Scale (ie, moderate impairment in most areas of functioning or severe impairment in at least 1 area). Concordance of Composite International Diagnostic Interview SED diagnoses with blinded Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children diagnoses was good. The estimated prevalence of SED was 8.0%. Most SEDs were due to behavior (54.5%) or mood (31.4%) disorders. Although respondents with 3 or more disorders made up only 29.0% of those with 12-month DSM-IV/Composite International Diagnostic Interview disorders, they constituted 63.5% of SEDs. Predictive effects of high comorbidity were significantly greater than the product of their disorder-specific odds ratios and consistent across disorder types. Associations of sociodemographic variables with SED were generally nonsignificant after controlling for disorder type and number. The high estimated 12-month prevalence of DSM-IV disorders among US adolescents is largely due to mild cases. The significant between-disorder differences in risk of SED and the significant effect of high comorbidity have important public health implications for targeting interventions.
    Archives of general psychiatry 04/2012; 69(4):381-9. · 12.26 Impact Factor
  • Article: Prevalence, persistence, and sociodemographic correlates of DSM-IV disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication Adolescent Supplement.
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    ABSTRACT: Community epidemiological data on the prevalence and correlates of adolescent mental disorders are needed for policy planning purposes. Only limited data of this sort are available. To present estimates of 12-month and 30-day prevalence, persistence (12-month prevalence among lifetime cases and 30-day prevalence among 12-month cases), and sociodemographic correlates of commonly occurring DSM-IV disorders among adolescents in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication Adolescent Supplement. The National Comorbidity Survey Replication Adolescent Supplement is a US national survey of DSM-IV anxiety, mood, behavior, and substance disorders among US adolescents based on face-to-face interviews in the homes of respondents with supplemental parent questionnaires. Dual-frame household and school samples of US adolescents. A total of 10,148 adolescents aged 13 to 17 years (interviews) and 1 parent of each adolescent (questionnaires). The DSM-IV disorders assessed with the World Health Organization Composite International Diagnostic Interview and validated with blinded clinical interviews based on the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children. Good concordance (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve ≥0.80) was found between Composite International Diagnostic Interview and Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children diagnoses. The prevalence estimates of any DSM-IV disorder are 40.3% at 12 months (79.5% of lifetime cases) and 23.4% at 30 days (57.9% of 12-month cases). Anxiety disorders are the most common class of disorders, followed by behavior, mood, and substance disorders. Although relative disorder prevalence is quite stable over time, 30-day to 12-month prevalence ratios are higher for anxiety and behavior disorders than mood or substance disorders, suggesting that the former are more chronic than the latter. The 30-day to 12-month prevalence ratios are generally lower than the 12-month to lifetime ratios, suggesting that disorder persistence is due more to episode recurrence than to chronicity. Sociodemographic correlates are largely consistent with previous studies. Among US adolescents, DSM-IV disorders are highly prevalent and persistent. Persistence is higher for adolescents than among adults and appears to be due more to recurrence than chronicity of child-adolescent onset disorders.
    Archives of general psychiatry 12/2011; 69(4):372-80. · 12.26 Impact Factor
  • Article: Validation of diagnoses of distress disorders in the US National Comorbidity Survey Replication Adolescent Supplement (NCS-A).
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    ABSTRACT: Research diagnostic interviews need to discriminate between closely related disorders in order to allow comorbidity among mental disorders to be studied reliably. Yet conventional studies of diagnostic validity generally focus on single disorders and do not examine discriminant validity. The current study examines the validity of fully-structured diagnoses of closely-related distress disorders (generalized anxiety disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, major depressive episode, and dysthymic disorder) in the lay-administered Composite International Diagnostic Interview Version 3.0 (CIDI) with independent clinical diagnoses based on the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Age Children (K-SADS) in the US National Comorbidity Survey Replication Adolescent Supplement (NCS-A). The NCS-A is a national survey of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV) among 10,148 adolescents. A probability sub-sample of 347 of these adolescents and their parents were administered blinded follow-up K-SADS interviews. Good concordance [area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC)] was found between diagnoses based on the CIDI and the K-SADS for generalized anxiety disorder (AUC = 0.78), post-traumatic stress disorder (AUC = 0.79), and major depressive episode/dysthymic disorder (AUC = 0.86). Further, the CIDI was able to effectively discriminate among different types of distress disorders in the sub-sample of respondents with any distress disorder.
    International journal of methods in psychiatric research. 11/2011; 21(1):41-51.
  • Article: Complicated grief associated with hurricane Katrina.
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    ABSTRACT: Although losses are important consequences of disasters, few epidemiological studies of disasters have assessed complicated grief (CG) and none assessed CG associated with losses other than death of loved one. Data come from the baseline survey of the Hurricane Katrina Community Advisory Group, a representative sample of 3,088 residents of the areas directly affected by Hurricane Katrina. A brief screen for CG was included containing four items consistent with the proposed DSM-V criteria for a diagnosis of bereavement-related adjustment disorder. Fifty-eight and half percent of respondents reported a significant hurricane-related loss: Most-severe losses were 29.0% tangible, 9.5% interpersonal, 8.1% intangible, 4.2% work/financial, and 3.7% death of loved one. Twenty-six point one percent respondents with significant loss had possible CG and 7.0% moderate-to-severe CG. Death of loved one was associated with the highest conditional probability of moderate-to-severe CG (18.5%, compared to 1.1-10.5% conditional probabilities for other losses), but accounted for only 16.5% of moderate-to-severe CG due to its comparatively low prevalence. Most moderate-to-severe CG was due to tangible (52.9%) or interpersonal (24.0%) losses. Significant predictors of CG were mostly unique to either bereavement (racial-ethnic minority status, social support) or other losses (prehurricane history of psychopathology, social competence.). Nonbereavement losses accounted for the vast majority of hurricane-related possible CG despite risk of CG being much higher in response to bereavement than to other losses. This result argues for expansion of research on CG beyond bereavement and alerts clinicians to the need to address postdisaster grief associated with a wide range of losses.
    Depression and Anxiety 08/2011; 28(8):648-57. · 4.18 Impact Factor
  • Article: Validation of the diagnoses of panic disorder and phobic disorders in the US National Comorbidity Survey Replication Adolescent (NCS-A) supplement.
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    ABSTRACT: Validity of the adolescent version of the World Health Organization Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI) Version 3.0, a fully-structured research diagnostic interview designed to be used by trained lay interviewers, is assessed in comparison to independent clinical diagnoses based on the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School-age Children (K-SADS). This assessment is carried out in the clinical reappraisal sub-sample (n = 347) of the US National Comorbidity Survey Adolescent (NCS-A) supplement, a large (n = 10,148) community epidemiological survey of the prevalence and correlates of adolescent mental disorders in the United States. The diagnoses considered are panic disorder and phobic disorders (social phobia, specific phobia, agoraphobia). CIDI diagnoses are found to have good concordance with K-SADS diagnoses [area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) = 0.81-0.94], although the CIDI diagnoses are consistency somewhat higher than the K-SADS diagnoses. Data are also presented on criterion-level concordance in an effort to pinpoint CIDI question series that might be improved in future modifications of the instrument. Finally, data are presented on the factor structure of the fears associated with social phobia, the only disorder in this series where substantial controversy exists about disorder subtypes.
    International journal of methods in psychiatric research. 06/2011; 20(2):105-15.
  • Article: A zero- and K-inflated mixture model for health questionnaire data.
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    ABSTRACT: In psychiatric assessment, Item Response Theory (IRT) is a popular tool to formalize the relation between the severity of a disorder and the associated responses to questionnaire items. Practitioners of IRT sometimes make the assumption of normally distributed severities within a population; while convenient, this assumption is often violated when measuring psychiatric disorders. Specifically, there may be a sizable group of respondents whose answers place them at an extreme of the latent trait spectrum. In this article, a zero- and K-inflated mixture model is developed to account for the presence of such respondents. The model is fitted using an expectation-maximization (E-M) algorithm to estimate the percentage of the population at each end of the continuum, concurrently analyzing the remaining 'graded component' via IRT. A method to perform factor analysis for only the graded component is introduced. In assessments of oppositional defiant disorder and conduct disorder, the zero- and K-inflated model exhibited better fit than the standard IRT model.
    Statistics in Medicine 03/2011; 30(9):1028-43. · 1.88 Impact Factor
  • Article: Recovery from PTSD following Hurricane Katrina.
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    ABSTRACT: We examined patterns and correlates of speed of recovery of estimated posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) among people who developed PTSD in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. A probability sample of prehurricane residents of areas affected by Hurricane Katrina was administered a telephone survey 7-19 months following the hurricane and again 24-27 months posthurricane. The baseline survey assessed PTSD using a validated screening scale and assessed a number of hypothesized predictors of PTSD recovery that included sociodemographics, prehurricane history of psychopathology, hurricane-related stressors, social support, and social competence. Exposure to posthurricane stressors and course of estimated PTSD were assessed in a follow-up interview. An estimated 17.1% of respondents had a history of estimated hurricane-related PTSD at baseline and 29.2% by the follow-up survey. Of the respondents who developed estimated hurricane-related PTSD, 39.0% recovered by the time of the follow-up survey with a mean duration of 16.5 months. Predictors of slow recovery included exposure to a life-threatening situation, hurricane-related housing adversity, and high income. Other sociodemographics, history of psychopathology, social support, social competence, and posthurricane stressors were unrelated to recovery from estimated PTSD. The majority of adults who developed estimated PTSD after Hurricane Katrina did not recover within 18-27 months. Delayed onset was common. Findings document the importance of initial trauma exposure severity in predicting course of illness and suggest that pre- and posttrauma factors typically associated with course of estimated PTSD did not influence recovery following Hurricane Katrina.
    Depression and Anxiety 02/2011; 28(6):439-46. · 4.18 Impact Factor
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    Article: Childhood adversities and adult psychopathology in the WHO World Mental Health Surveys.
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    ABSTRACT: Although significant associations of childhood adversities with adult mental disorders are widely documented, most studies focus on single childhood adversities predicting single disorders. To examine joint associations of 12 childhood adversities with first onset of 20 DSM-IV disorders in World Mental Health (WMH) Surveys in 21 countries. Nationally or regionally representative surveys of 51 945 adults assessed childhood adversities and lifetime DSM-IV disorders with the WHO Composite International Diagnostic Interview (CIDI). Childhood adversities were highly prevalent and interrelated. Childhood adversities associated with maladaptive family functioning (e.g. parental mental illness, child abuse, neglect) were the strongest predictors of disorders. Co-occurring childhood adversities associated with maladaptive family functioning had significant subadditive predictive associations and little specificity across disorders. Childhood adversities account for 29.8% of all disorders across countries. Childhood adversities have strong associations with all classes of disorders at all life-course stages in all groups of WMH countries. Long-term associations imply the existence of as-yet undetermined mediators.
    The British journal of psychiatry: the journal of mental science 11/2010; 197(5):378-85. · 6.62 Impact Factor
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    Article: Structure and diagnosis of adult attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder: analysis of expanded symptom criteria from the Adult ADHD Clinical Diagnostic Scale.
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    ABSTRACT: Controversy exists about the appropriate criteria for a diagnosis of adult attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). To examine the structure and symptoms most predictive of DSM-IV adult ADHD. The data are from clinical interviews in enriched subsamples of the National Comorbidity Survey Replication (n = 131) and a survey of a large managed health care plan (n = 214). The physician-administered Adult ADHD Clinical Diagnostic Scale (ACDS) was used to assess childhood ADHD and expanded symptoms of current adult ADHD. Analyses examined the stability of symptoms from childhood to adulthood, the structure of adult ADHD, and the adult symptoms most predictive of current clinical diagnoses. The ACDS was administered telephonically by clinical research interviewers with extensive experience in the diagnosis and treatment of adult ADHD. An enriched sample of community respondents. Diagnoses of DSM-IV /ACDS adult ADHD. Almost half of the respondents (45.7%) who had childhood ADHD continued to meet the full DSM-IV criteria for current adult ADHD, with 94.9% of these patients having current attention-deficit disorder and 34.6% having current hyperactivity disorder. Adult persistence was much greater for inattention than for hyperactivity/impulsivity. Additional respondents met the full criteria for current adult ADHD despite not having met the full childhood criteria. A 3-factor structure of adult symptoms included executive functioning (EF), inattention/hyperactivity, and impulsivity. Stepwise logistic regression found EF problems to be the most consistent and discriminating predictors of adult DSM-IV /ACDS ADHD. These findings document the greater persistence of inattentive than of hyperactive/impulsive childhood symptoms of ADHD in adulthood but also show that inattention is not specific to ADHD because it is strongly associated with other adult mental disorders. In comparison, EF problems are more specific and consistently important predictors of DSM-IV adult ADHD despite not being in the DSM-IV, suggesting that the number of EF symptoms should be increased in the DSM-V/ICD-11.
    Archives of general psychiatry 11/2010; 67(11):1168-78. · 12.26 Impact Factor
  • Article: Trends in serious emotional disturbance among youths exposed to Hurricane Katrina.
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    ABSTRACT: To examine patterns and predictors of trends in DSM-IV serious emotional disturbance (SED) among youths exposed to Hurricane Katrina. A probability sample of adult pre-hurricane residents of the areas affected by Katrina completed baseline and follow-up telephone surveys 18 to 27 months post-hurricane and 12 to 18 months later. Baseline adult respondents residing with children and adolescents (4-17 years of age) provided informant reports about the emotional functioning of these youths (n = 576) with the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ). The surveys also assessed hurricane-related stressors and ongoing stressors experienced by respondent families. SED prevalence decreased significantly across survey waves from 15.1% to 11.5%, although even the latter prevalence was considerably higher than the pre-hurricane prevalence of 4.2% estimated in the US National Health Interview Survey. Trends in hurricane-related SED were predicted by both stressors experienced in the hurricane and ongoing stressors, with SED prevalence decreasing significantly only among youths with moderate stress exposure (16.8% versus 6.5%). SED prevalence did not change significantly between waves among youths with either high stress exposure (30.0% versus 41.9%) or low stress exposure (3.5% versus 3.4%). Pre-hurricane functioning did not predict SED persistence among youths with high stress exposure, but did predict SED persistence among youth with low-moderate stress exposure. The prevalence of SED among youths exposed to Hurricane Katrina remains significantly elevated several years after the storm despite meaningful decrease since baseline. Youths with high stress exposure have the highest risk of long-term hurricane-related SED and consequently represent an important target for mental health intervention.
    Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry 10/2010; 49(10):990-1000, 1000.e1-2. · 4.98 Impact Factor
  • Article: Screening for serious mental illness in the general population with the K6 screening scale: results from the WHO World Mental Health (WMH) survey initiative.
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    ABSTRACT: Data are reported on the background and performance of the K6 screening scale for serious mental illness (SMI) in the World Health Organization (WHO) World Mental Health (WMH) surveys. The K6 is a six-item scale developed to provide a brief valid screen for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders 4th edition (DSM-IV) SMI based on the criteria in the US ADAMHA Reorganization Act. Although methodological studies have documented good K6 validity in a number of countries, optimal scoring rules have never been proposed. Such rules are presented here based on analysis of K6 data in nationally or regionally representative WMH surveys in 14 countries (combined N = 41,770 respondents). Twelve-month prevalence of DSM-IV SMI was assessed with the fully-structured WHO Composite International Diagnostic Interview. Nested logistic regression analysis was used to generate estimates of the predicted probability of SMI for each respondent from K6 scores, taking into consideration the possibility of variable concordance as a function of respondent age, gender, education, and country. Concordance, assessed by calculating the area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, was generally substantial (median 0.83; range 0.76-0.89; inter-quartile range 0.81-0.85). Based on this result, optimal scaling rules are presented for use by investigators working with the K6 scale in the countries studied.
    International journal of methods in psychiatric research. 06/2010; 19 Suppl 1:4-22.
  • Article: Improving the K6 short scale to predict serious emotional disturbance in adolescents in the USA.
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    ABSTRACT: Effective screening for emotional and behavioral disorders among youth requires brief screening scales with good validity to identify youth requiring further evaluation and to estimate prevalence of target disorders in populations of interest such as schools or neighborhoods. This paper examines the psychometric properties of a very short (six-item) screening scale, the K6, to assess serious emotional disturbance (SED) among youth. The K6, which is made up of symptoms of depression and anxiety, has been shown in previous research to be a strong predictor of serious mental illness (SMI) in adults, but no information is available on the ability of the scale to screen for SED among youth. The current report examines the K6 as a screen for SED in a national survey of US adolescents, the National Comorbidity Survey Replication Adolescent Supplement (NCS-A). The K6 is shown to provide fairly good prediction of SED [area under curve (AUC) = 0.74] that is somewhat higher for internalizing (AUC = 0.80) than behavior (AUC = 0.75) disorders. Based on this result, we augmented the K6 with questions about symptoms of behavior disorders. This improved prediction of SED (from AUC = 0.74 to AUC = 0.83) as well as of SED associated with pure behavior disorders (from AUC = 0.53 to AUC = 0.78). These results show that although the symptoms of depression and anxiety in the K6 are sufficient to detect SMI among adults, high rates of behavior disorders among adolescents require indicators of behavior disorders to be added to the K6 to screen adequately for adolescent SED.
    International journal of methods in psychiatric research. 06/2010; 19 Suppl 1:23-35.
  • Article: Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder: concordance of the adolescent version of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview Version 3.0 (CIDI) with the K-SADS in the US National Comorbidity Survey Replication Adolescent (NCS-A) supplement.
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    ABSTRACT: This paper evaluates the internal consistency reliability and concurrent validity of the assessment of Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV) attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) in the adolescent version of the World Health Organization (WHO) Composite International Diagnostic Interview Version 3.0 (CIDI). The CIDI is a lay-administered diagnostic interview that was carried out in conjunction with the US National Comorbidity Survey Adolescent Supplement, a US nationally representative survey of 10,148 adolescents and their parents. Internal consistency reliability was evaluated using factor and item response theory analyses. Concurrent validity was evaluated against diagnoses based on blinded clinician-administered interviews. Inattention and hyperactivity-impulsivity items loaded on separate but correlated factors, with hyperactivity and impulsivity items forming a single factor in parent reports but separate factors in youth reports. We were able to differentiate hyperactivity and impulsivity factors for parents as well by eliminating a subset who endorsed zero ADHD items from the factor analysis. Although concurrent validity was relatively weak, decomposition showed that this was due to low validity of adolescent reports. A modified CIDI diagnosis based exclusively on parent reports generated a diagnosis that had good concordance with clinical diagnoses [area under the curve (AUC) = 0.78]. Implications for assessing ADHD using the CIDI and the effect of different informants on measurement are discussed.
    International journal of methods in psychiatric research. 02/2010; 19(1):34-49.
  • Article: Childhood adversities and adult psychiatric disorders in the national comorbidity survey replication I: associations with first onset of DSM-IV disorders.
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    ABSTRACT: Although significant associations of childhood adversities (CAs) with adult mental disorders have been documented consistently in epidemiological surveys, these studies generally have examined only 1 CA per study. Because CAs are highly clustered, this approach results in overestimating the importance of individual CAs. Multivariate CA studies have been based on insufficiently complex models. To examine the joint associations of 12 retrospectively reported CAs with the first onset of DSM-IV disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication using substantively complex multivariate models. Cross-sectional community survey with retrospective reports of CAs and lifetime DSM-IV disorders. Household population in the United States. Nationally representative sample of 9282 adults. Lifetime prevalences of 20 DSM-IV anxiety, mood, disruptive behavior, and substance use disorders assessed using the Composite International Diagnostic Interview. The CAs studied were highly prevalent and intercorrelated. The CAs in a maladaptive family functioning (MFF) cluster (parental mental illness, substance abuse disorder, and criminality; family violence; physical abuse; sexual abuse; and neglect) were the strongest correlates of disorder onset. The best-fitting model included terms for each type of CA, number of MFF CAs, and number of other CAs. Multiple MFF CAs had significant subadditive associations with disorder onset. Little specificity was found for particular CAs with particular disorders. Associations declined in magnitude with life course stage and number of previous lifetime disorders but increased with length of recall. Simulations suggest that CAs are associated with 44.6% of all childhood-onset disorders and with 25.9% to 32.0% of later-onset disorders. The fact that associations increased with length of recall raises the possibility of recall bias inflating estimates. Even considering this, the results suggest that CAs have powerful and often subadditive associations with the onset of many types of largely primary mental disorders throughout the life course.
    Archives of general psychiatry 02/2010; 67(2):113-23. · 12.26 Impact Factor

Institutions

  • 2013
    • Université Paris Descartes
      Paris, Ile-de-France, France
  • 2012
    • Boston Children's Hospital
      Boston, MA, USA
  • 2011
    • Boston University
      • School of Education
      Boston, MA, USA
    • Columbia University
      New York City, NY, USA
    • Tufts University
      Boston, GA, USA
  • 2008–2011
    • Harvard University
      • Department of Health Care Policy
      Boston, MA, USA
  • 2009
    • Ministry of Health, Iraq
      Baghdad, Muhafazat Baghdad, Iraq
  • 2007
    • National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)
      Bethesda, MD, USA