Cognitive theories posit that interpretation biases (IBs), the tendency to interpret emotionally ambiguous information negatively, contribute to the development and maintenance of depression. While ad...

Early adolescence is a common period of onset for depressive symptoms. In part, this may reflect a developmental expression of individuals’ genetic propensities as they undergo physiological and hormo...

Reports suggest rising trends in non-suicidal self-injury (NSSI) and disordered eating (DE) amid worsening adolescent mental health; however, the use of single-item measures obscures these findings. M...

Externalizing disorders (Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) and Conduct Disorder (CD)) are frequent among children and adolescents referred to mental ...

Cognitive reserve (CR) modulates the impact of neural alterations on clinical outcomes, yet its association with brain structure during youth remains unexplored. We aimed to investigate the relationsh...

Childhood-Onset Psychosis (COP) is an extremely rare and severe variant of psychosis. This paper presents the largest UK case series of COP, comprising 39 families (105 individuals) recruited between ...

Internalizing disorders (INTs), including anxiety (AD) and depressive disorders (DD), frequently emerge during adolescence. Studies suggest that certain core domains of executive functioning (EF), i.e. inhibition, shifting and working memory (WM) may show selectively lower performance in certain INTs. This systematic review aimed to evaluate the evidence of associations between INTs and EF in adolescents. A systematic search was conducted in Medline, Psych-INFO, Scopus, and Web of Science in May 2023. Inclusion focused on adolescents (12–17) with AD (including obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD)) or DD. After screening 2,551 titles/abstracts, 818 records underwent full-text review, on which independent reviewers reached 93% agreement on eligibility. EF parameters, measured through task-performance or ratings, were extracted from 32 eligible articles published since 2014. Performance-based EF differences were reported in 22 studies, most frequently in adolescents with DD. Task-based inhibition showed lower scores most consistently in DD (n = 5). Findings were mixed across other INTs. Three studies found evidence for improved inhibition performance in OCD (n = 2) and AD (n = 1). Finally, 6 studies reporting on self- or parent-rated EF found significant difficulties across EF domains, of which 3 contrasted with intact performances on task-based measurements of EF. Findings suggest both objective and subjective EF difficulties across INTs with no conclusive evidence for selective domain-specific differences. We highlight a discrepancy between subjectively experienced or observed deficits in daily EF and performance on structured tasks. This suggests that rating-based EF may be more sensitive for capturing subtle EF difficulties and therefore adds value in research and clinical settings. Finally, the quality of studies is discussed and directions for future studies are identified, namely, the use of both task and rating-based measures of EF as well as inclusion of larger sample sizes.

The relationship between leptin levels and psychiatric disorders has been studied more extensively in adults than in children and adolescents. However, the results are conflicting. We investigated ser...

The co-existence of autism and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder in tic disorders is a key factor influencing clinical decision-making. Given the shared clinical features and a potentially over...

European Child & Adolescent Psychiatry - The increasing prevalence of problematic social media use (PSMU) has heightened concerns about its adverse impact on social media users’ mental...

Despite the increased incidence of disordered eating among adolescents and low help-seeking rates, there is currently a lack of evidence supporting use of screening tools for this population. The pres...