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The purpose of this prospective, naturalistic study was to examine the relationships between suicide attempts and contemporaneous psychiatric disorders, and developmental changes in these relationships from adolescence to young adulthood. The sample consisted of 180 adolescents, 12-19 years of age at hospitalization, repeatedly assessed for up to 13 years (n = 1,825 assessments). Semistructured psychiatric diagnostic instruments were administered at repeated assessments to assess psychiatric disorders and suicide attempts. After controlling for demographic variables and prehospitalization suicide attempts, most contemporaneous psychiatric disorders (major depressive disorder [MDD], dysthymic disorder, generalized anxiety disorder [GAD], panic disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder [AD/HD], conduct disorder, and substance use disorder [SUD]) were related to increased risk of attempts. The relationship between suicide attempts and MDD, GAD, AD/HD, and SUD strengthened as participants got older. MDD, dysthymic disorder, GAD, and panic disorder were more commonly associated with repeat than 1st-time suicide attempts. In sum, most major psychiatric disorders are associated with increased risk for suicide attempts, but the strength of the relationships between these disorders and attempts changes over the course of development. Keywords: suicide attempts, psychiatric diagnoses, longitudinal, naturalistic, developmental psychopathology

Prevalence estimates were used with children born between 1965 and 1996 to test the belief that children and adolescents of the new generation are more likely to suffer from depression than were earlier generations at the same age. It was seen that public perception of an 'epidemic' might come up from heightened awareness of a disorder that was for a long time under-diagnosed by clinicians.

The reported dates symptom onset in psychological disorders of children and adolescents are often unreliable and imprecise. A survey on the symptom reporting by parents and children reveals that the date of onset of a symptom is more likely to be imprecise if the period between recall and onset is more three months. Both parents and children are unreliable, with children showing more variability in their reporting of symptom onset than their parents. In addition, both tend to report onsets of disruptive behaviors less accurately than other symptoms.

Comorbidity is now becoming widely recognized as an opportunity for enhancing understanding of the development of psychopathology and as a potential means of improving nosology. It is not possible in any case to be sure of understanding the substantive causes of comorbidity between any pair of diagnoses. Nevertheless, it is clear that substantive causes must be sought, as none of the possible methodological explanations for comorbidity is valid for all pairs of diagnoses. It is important to remember that timing is a key element in understanding comorbidity.

An approach involving Markov Chain Monte Carlo is used to resolve three distinct pathways involving genes and life events for the development of post-pubertal depression in female twins. The results obtained show that genes, which affect early anxiety, increase sensitivity further to adversity.

Research presented concerns the diagnostic literature on adolescent depression, focusing on the sex differences in depression diagnosis. Topics include behavioral development and the influence of age on self-reported depression scale scores.