Faculty Bibliography

Current clinical literature and supporting animal literature have shown that repeated and profound early-life adversity, especially when experienced within the caregiver-infant dyad, disrupts the trajectory of brain development to induce later-life expression of maladaptive behavior and pathology. What is less well understood is the immediate impact of repeated adversity during early life with the caregiver, especially since attachment to the caregiver occurs regardless of the quality of care the infant received including experiences of trauma. The focus of the present manuscript is to review the current literature on infant trauma within attachment, with an emphasis on animal research to define mechanisms and translate developmental child research. Across species, the effects of repeated trauma with the attachment figure, are subtle in early life, but the presence of acute stress can uncover some pathology, as was highlighted by Bowlby and Ainsworth in the 1950s. Through rodent neurobehavioral literature we discuss the important role of repeated elevations in stress hormone corticosterone (CORT) in infancy, especially if paired with the mother (not when pups are alone) as targeting the amygdala and causal in infant pathology. We also show that following induced alterations, at baseline infants appear stable, although acute stress hormone elevation uncovers pathology in brain circuits important in emotion, social behavior, and fear. We suggest that a comprehensive understanding of the role of stress hormones during infant typical development and elevated CORT disruption of this typical development will provide insight into age-specific identification of trauma effects, as well as a better understanding of early markers of later-life pathology.

Violence-related post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) in the context of war and terrorism has become an increasingly pressing public health issue relevant to refugee children and families. PTSD and related psychopathology in children can adversely affect all domains of development and, in particular, interfere with learning and socialization. When the experience of violent trauma and related loss is shared with the entire family, resulting impairment and distress may prevent caregivers from being psychologically available to process their traumatized children's emotional communication and otherwise meet their children's developmental needs. When children suffer from PTSD, it may be impossible to put their experience and related thoughts and feelings into words, let alone a coherent narrative. The latter difficulty can be even more pronounced when the child displays dissociative symptoms, possibly signaling a dissociative subtype of PTSD. Thus, the narrative within the child's play during psychotherapy becomes all the more important as an indicator of the child's internal world. This case report is an example both of evaluation and of psychotherapy that is both psychodynamic and trauma-informed with a 10-year-old Afghani boy who suffered the violent loss of his father at age of 3 years, leading to his immigration to Switzerland. This paper addresses the question of how the psychotherapist can accompany the child through the elaboration of his trauma and how the therapist can contribute to the co-construction of a coherent narrative of the child's experience and to the restoration of an intersubjective connection between the traumatized child and caregiver.

OBJECTIVE:Children with ADHD often exhibit marked impairment in their social skills, but evidence-based psychosocial interventions for ADHD have shown limited efficacy in remediating these deficits. Co-occurring psychopathology exacerbates social deficits in children with ADHD and is a plausible moderator of treatment response. To identify factors contributing to variable social skills treatment response, we examined co-occurring externalizing, depression, and anxiety symptoms as moderators of social skills outcomes in a randomized controlled trial of the Collaborative Life Skills (CLS) program, an evidence-based collaborative school-home ADHD intervention. METHOD:age = 8.35 years, 28.3% female) at 27 schools in an urban public school district. Twenty-three schools were randomly assigned to CLS or usual services, with an additional four schools assigned to Spanish-adapted CLS or usual services. Multi-informant measures of co-occurring psychopathology and social skills were collected at baseline and post-treatment. RESULTS:Parent-rated externalizing and depression symptoms moderated treatment effects on social skills, whereby higher symptomatology in each domain was unrelated to social skills improvement in the CLS group but predicted worsening social skills in response to usual services. In contrast, teacher-rated anxiety moderated treatment effects on social skills, whereby higher anxiety predicted greater social skills improvement in response to CLS but was unrelated to social skills outcomes following usual services. CONCLUSIONS:Findings reflect novel evidence that child psychopathology domains exhibit unique moderating effects on social skills treatment response in children with ADHD. We discuss implications for optimizing evidence-based interventions to target social impairment in this population.

Introduction/UNASSIGNED:Interpersonal violent (IPV) experiences when they begin in childhood and continue in various forms during adulthood often lead to chronic post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) that is associated in multiple studies with hypocortisolism and lower percentage of methylation of the promoter region of the gene coding for the glucocorticoid receptor (NR3C1). This prospective, longitudinal study examined the relationship of NR3C1 methylation among mothers with IPV-related PTSD and their toddlers and then looked at the relationship of maternal NR3C1 methylation and child psychopathology at school age. Methods/UNASSIGNED:structured clinical interview when their children were ages 12-42 months (mean age 26.7 months, SD 8.8). Their children's psychopathology in terms of internalizing symptoms and externalizing behaviors was evaluated using the Child Behavior Checklist at ages 5-9 years (mean age 7 years, SD 1.1). Percentage of methylation for the NR3C1 gene promoter region was assessed from DNA extracted from maternal and child saliva using bisulfite pyrosequencing. Data analysis involved parametric and non-parametric correlations and multiple linear and logistic regression modeling. Results/UNASSIGNED:Logistic regression models using child NR3C1 methylation as the dependent variable and maternal NR3C1 methylation and PTSD group status as predictors, as well as the interaction indicated that all three of these significantly predicted child NR3C1 methylation. These findings remained significant when controlling for child age, sex and maternal child abuse history. Overall, maternal NR3C1 methylation when children were toddlers was negatively and significantly associated with child externalizing behavior severity at school age. Discussion/UNASSIGNED:We found that correlations between mothers and their children of NR3C1 methylation levels overall and at all individual CpG sites of interest were significant only in the IPV-PTSD group. The latter findings support that NR3C1 methylation in mothers positively and statistically significantly correlates with NR3C1 methylation in their children only in presence of IPV-PTSD in the mothers. This maternal epigenetic signature with respect to this glucocorticoid receptor is significantly associated with child behavior that may well pose a risk for intergenerational transmission of violence and related psychopathology.

INTRODUCTION/BACKGROUND:Adults with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) have unhealthy eating habits, associated with overweight/obesity. We explored whether they present with different food-related benefit/risk perceptions, compared to those without ADHD. METHODS:One hundred five university students with (n = 36) and without (n = 69) ADHD, aged 22-30, participated in the study. They rated the level of frequency and likelihood of food consumption, as well as the perceived attractiveness, convenience, and risk of 32 healthy and unhealthy food items. RESULTS:The findings revealed significantly lower healthy/unhealthy food frequency consumption ratios for the ADHD group compared with the non-ADHD one but no differences in the ratios of estimated likelihood of food consumption and perceptions (attractiveness, convenience, and risk). CONCLUSION/CONCLUSIONS:The results of this study demonstrated a discrepancy between the eating behavior (more unhealthy eating patterns in adults with ADHD compared with controls) and their food-related perceptions (same perceptions regarding the benefit and risk of foods in both groups).