Abstract The categorical approach of diagnosing mental disorders entails the problem frequently occurring comorbidities, suggesting a more parsimonious structure psychopathology. In this study, we therefore aim to assess how affective dysregulation (AD) is associated with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and oppositional defiant (ODD) in children. To AD children aged 8–12 years (...

The term 'post-dysenteric colonic irritability' was introduced by Sir Arthur Hurst (1943) to describe persistent irritability of the bowel following an acute attack of bacillary or amoebic dysentery. The early symptoms were attributed to a non-specific chronic colitis occurring after the specific infection had died out, but in the later stages were thought to be due to 'functional irritability'...

BACKGROUND Mood instability (MI) and irritability are related to depression but are not considered core symptoms. Instruments typically code clusters of symptoms that are used to define syndromic depression, but the place of MI and irritability has been under-investigated. Whether they are core symptoms can be examined using Rasch analysis. METHOD We used the UK Psychiatric Morbidity Survey 2...

OBJECTIVE Researchers disagree as to whether irritability is a diagnostic indicator for pediatric mania in bipolar disorder. The authors compared the behavioral and psychophysiological correlates of irritability among children with severe mood dysregulation (i.e., nonepisodic irritability and hyperarousal without episodes of euphoric mood) and narrow-phenotype bipolar disorder (i.e., a history ...

OBJECTIVE The importance of dimensional approaches is widely recognized, but an empirical base for clinical application is lacking. This is particularly true for irritability, a dimensional phenotype that cuts across many areas of psychopathology and manifests early in life. We examine longitudinal, dimensional patterns of irritability and their clinical import in early childhood. METHOD Irri...

IMPORTANCE Although symptoms of irritability or anger are not central to the diagnosis of unipolar major depressive episodes (MDEs), these symptoms have been found, in cross-sectional studies, to be highly prevalent and associated with increased comorbidity and depressive illness burden. OBJECTIVE To determine the prevalence of overtly expressed irritability/anger and its effect on intake pre...

BACKGROUND This study examined the efficacy and safety of N-acetylcysteine (NAC) augmentation for treating irritability in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). METHOD Forty children and adolescents met diagnostic criteria for ASD according to DSM-IV. They were randomly allocated into one of the two groups of NAC (1200 mg/day)+risperidone or placebo+risperidone. NAC a...

Two postal questionnaire surveys were carried out among the adult population of Southampton aimed at clarifying the diagnostic criteria for asthma (study 1) and at testing the validity of symptoms so identified as diagnostic of bronchial hyper-reactivity (study 2). The questionnaires asked about respiratory symptoms and included three questions thought likely to disclose increased bronchial rea...