Do children with social anxiety disorder benefit from social skills training?

Social anxiety disorder (SAD) in children can be difficult to treat, as evidenced by the varied outcomes reported post-treatment.1,2 Although childhood treatments for SAD commonly involve at least some social skills training,3 it isn’t clear whether children with SAD have particular difficulties with social skills. There is therefore a need to better establish whether social skills are an effective target for treating SAD.

14 December 2020

Sleep problems from infancy are linked with impaired well-being in middle childhood

Researchers in the USA and Australia have found that sleep disturbances from early childhood are associated with reductions in well-being at age 10-11 years old. Ariel Williamson and colleagues came to this conclusion after analysing data from >5,000 children enrolled in the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children – Birth Cohort.

11 December 2020

Sleep Matters

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Event type

Live Stream

Location

Online

Is infant empathy linked with later externalizing problems?

Until recently, it has been assumed that young infants cannot feel empathy for others.1 However, emerging data suggest that this might not actually be the case.2 Now, Yael Paz and colleagues have examined empathy development during the first years of life, analysing data from 165 infants involved in a longitudinal, prospective study.

19 November 2020

A developmental language disorder might increase the risk of reoffending

Researchers in the UK are the first to identify the potential impact of a developmental language disorder (DLD) on reoffending risk in young people. Maxine Winstanley and colleagues recruited 145 young offenders to their study.

19 November 2020

Insufficient sleep might affect children’s emotional health

Data from a new study published in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry suggest that insufficient sleep can affect emotional health in children. The study, conducted by Candice Alfano and colleagues, assessed the impact of sleep duration on different aspects of emotion in a cohort of 53 children aged 7-11 years old.

16 November 2020

The DSM-5 criteria for DMDD overlook children with context-specific impairing irritability

Impairing irritability is common in children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), but little is known about its prevalence across contexts. Now, data from a study recently published in Child and Adolescent Mental Health have shed light on the prevalence of context-specific irritability in ADHD and how it varies depending on parenting practices and sleep problems.

16 November 2020

West Midlands ACAMH Branch

Here at West Midlands ACAMH we’d like to extend a warm welcome to all of you who have an interest in children and young people’s mental health and psychological wellbeing. Whether you are a psychiatrist, psychologist, teacher, social worker, nurse or other who supports children in a professional capacity or whether your expertise comes from caring for a young person with mental health issues, we believe ACAMH has something valuable to offer.

16 November 2020

Tuning into the real effect of smartphone use on parenting: a multiverse analysis – video abstract

Video abstract by Dr. Kathryn Modecki on her paper in JCPP ‘Tuning into the real effect of smartphone use on parenting: a multiverse analysis.’

11 November 2020

Do CAMHS collect less PROM data from certain sociodemographic groups?

Patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) are routinely used to inform clinicians and policymakers on clinical need and treatment efficacy. Yet despite their great value and utility, it seems that there is a low rate of outcome monitoring in Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS).

9 November 2020