91,92,95 Second, epidemiologic studies of children show that there is pervasive comorbidity between purportedly distinct diagnostic entities. As described in the above review, few children manifest

only a single disorder. Numerous efforts are underway to integrate dimensional and categorical assessments of children.96,97 Inclusion of children under age 6 in population surveys With the exception of pervasive developmental disorders, there has been considerable controversy about the validity of diagnosis of mental disorders in very young children (ages 2 to 5 years). There is accumulating Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical evidence, however, that mental disorders generally identified in school-age children are quite prevalent in preschool children. In a summary of the community surveys of young children, Logger and colleagues98 reported the following range of rates of childhood disorders: ADHD from 2% to 5.7%; ODD from 4% to 16.8%; CD from 0% Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical to 4.6%; depression from 0% to 2.1 %; and anxiety disorders from 0.3% up to 9.4%. In addition to the prevalence of these disorders Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical in young children, rates of impairment are very high (ie, about 84.6%

of those with emotional disorders and 100% of those with behavioral disorders). There is also a high degree of comorbidity in young children with mental disorders; of those with one disorder, selleck inhibitor approximately 25% have a second disorder. The proportion of children with comorbidity increases about 1.6 times for each additional year from age 2 (18.2%) to 5 (49.7%).98 Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical Integration of child and adult studies Epidemiologic studies of adults and children have generally proceeded independently, in part because of differences in diagnostic methods and

measures, and the requisite inclusion of informant reports regarding child disorders. One manifestation of this independence is the controversy between what constitutes bipolar Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical disorder in adults and children. Florfenicol There has been substantial debate about whether the rapid mood changes and behavioral dysregulation that characterizes children in clinical samples is truly a manifestation of bipolar disorder that has been fairly well-operationalized in adults.99 There is sparse information on the symptoms of bipolar disorder from community surveys that can address the possible sampling bias in these clinical samples of youth (with the exception of prospective studies such as that of Lewinsohn et al).100 The prospective design of many of the community surveys of children and adolescents that began in the 1970s and 1980s has generated substantial information on the continuity of childhood disorders into early adulthood.