Search

Social anxiety is highly prevalent in adolescents and is often associated with great individual suffering and functional impairment. Psychiatric comorbidity is common and further adds to this burden. The purposes of this study were: (1) to describe the occurrence of diagnosed and self-reported social anxiety among 8,199 Norwegian adolescents aged 13–19 years who participated in the population-based Young-HUNT3 study (2006–2008); (2) to examine associations between sociodemographic characteristics and different subgroups of social anxiety; and (3) to describe the psychiatric health comorbidities among adolescents diagnosed with social anxiety disorder (SAD). In total, 388 (5.9%) of the adolescents screened positive for SAD and were invited into a diagnostic interview, performed by professional nurses, using Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule for DSM IV: child version (ADIS-C) (response rate = 54.6%). A SAD diagnosis was indicated in 106 individuals (50% of the interview subjects), and more than two-thirds of the adolescents diagnosed with SAD had one or more comorbid psychiatric disorders. Higher mean scores of self-reported social anxiety symptoms, poor self-rated health, sleep problems, poor family economic situation, low physical activity, and having sought professional help within the last year were associated with higher odds of being in the screening positive subgroup. Screening positive subjects who did not meet for a diagnostic interview did not differ notably from the rest of the screening positive group in terms of these sociodemographic characteristics. Based on our results and the fact that individuals with social anxiety often fear interview situations, the use of ADIS-C, screening questions and self-reports seem to be sufficient when aiming to identify epidemiologically representative cohorts of adolescents at risk of social anxiety. Copyright © 2021 Jystad, Bjerkeset, Haugan, Sund and Vaag. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

Background : Evidence suggests that children with mild to borderline intellectual disabilities (MBID; IQ 50–85) have an elevated risk for both being exposed to potentially traumatic events and developing a posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In this target group, PTSD often remains undiscovered due to a lack of diagnostic instruments. Valid instruments for the assessment of PTSD in children with MBID are therefore needed. Objective : The aim of the current study was to validate the adapted PTSD section of the Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule for Children (ADIS-C) for the assessment of PTSD in children with MBID according to DSM-IV-TR and DSM-5 criteria. Method : Eighty children (aged 6–18 years) with MBID who were referred to an outpatient psychiatric service and their primary caregivers were interviewed using the adapted ADIS-C. Results : The adapted ADIS-C PTSD section has excellent interrater reliability and good convergent validity. PTSD symptoms described spontaneously by children with MBID and their caregivers closely matched those included in the DSM-IV-TR and DSM-5. Many of the children who met Criterion A did not meet PTSD symptom criteria. Conversely, children meeting the full PTSD criteria were more likely than other children with MBID to have been exposed to at least one traumatic event meeting Criterion A and to a higher total number of potentially traumatic events. Conclusions : The results support the reliability and validity of the adapted ADIS-C PTSD section for assessing PTSD in children with MBID. The use of this clinical interview helps to improve detection of PTSD and subsequent access to trauma-focused interventions for this at risk target group. Keywords: Trauma; PTSD; intellectual disabilities; diagnosis; assessment; children; ADIS-C; caregivers; A1 criterion; DSM-IV-TR; DSM-5 (Published: 11 January 2016) Responsible Editor: Julian D. Ford, University of Connecticut Health Center, USA. For the abstract or full text in other languages and supplementary material for this article, please see Supplementary files in the column to the right (under ‘Article Tools’). Citation: European Journal of Psychotraumatology 2016, 7 : 29786 - http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/ejpt.v7.29786

Dissertação de mestrado em Psicologia Clínica e de Saúde (Intervenções Cognitivo-Comportamentais nas Perturbações Psicológicas e de Saúde) apresentada à Faculdade de Psicologia e Ciências da Educação da Universidade de Coimbra.