Behavioral and emotional disorders include a wide range of behavioral patterns, ranging from externalizing to internalizing behavior disorders as well as combined behaviors that include features of both subtypes. Externalizing behaviors are actions that direct problematic energy outward and may include behaviors such as verbal and physical aggression, hyperactivity, noncompliance, and delinquen...

Externalizing disorders are the most common and persistent forms of maladjustment in childhood. The aim of this study was to conduct a meta-analysis evaluating the effectiveness of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) to reduce externalizing symptoms in two disorders: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) and Oppositive Defiant Disorder (ODD). The efficacy of CBT to improve social compe...

BACKGROUND The polyamine system has been implicated in a number of psychiatric conditions, which display both alterations in polyamine levels and altered expression of genes related to polyamine metabolism. Studies have identified associations between genetic variants in spermidine/spermine N1-acetyltransferase (SAT1) and both anxiety and suicide, and several polymorphisms appear to play import...

The clinical heterogeneity within oppositional defiant disorder (ODD) is gaining some face validity with new research identifying two symptom factors within the eight DSM ODD symptoms. An “irritable/negative affect” symptom cluster is associated with internalizing disorders and a “headstrong/oppositional” cluster is differentially predictive of disruptive disorders (Stringaris & Goodman, 2009; ...

Psychotropic medications are being prescribed off-label by psychiatrists to treat preschool children diagnosed with internalizing disorders. In this review, the current state of evidence is presented for medications used to treat preschool children (ages 2-5 year olds) diagnosed with anxiety and/or depressive disorders. Eleven studies were systematically identified for this review based on a pr...

This paper presents an integrative research-derived model to explain comorbidity among SUDs, externalizing disorders, and internalizing disorders. This hierarchical model is based on phenotypic covariance among the disorders and latent common genetic liability. At the highest level of the hierarchy, general genetically-influenced biological dispositions to negative emotionality and behavioral d...