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M L Handwerk

Publications and source records attributed to M L Handwerk.

6 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2000

External validity of conduct and oppositional defiant disorders determined by the NIMH Diagnostic Interview Schedule for children.

We administered the Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children (DISC) two times to a group of youth (222 boys, 147 girls) entering residential care, once at their time of entry and once 1 year later. We then compared their DISC outcomes on Conduct Disorder (CD) and Oppositional Defiant Disorder (ODD) against changes in independent direct observations of diagnostically relevant behavior obtained over the course of that year. Results from hierarchical linear modeling analyses showed significant discriminative relationships between results from the DISC and the independent observations. Specifically, observations of symptomatic behaviors (CD or ODD) decreased for youth who met diagnostic criteria at the first administration of the DISC but not at the second, increased for youth who did not meet criteria at the first administration but did at the second, and did not change for youth who met criteria at both administrations. These results extend the data on the validity of the DISC and support continued research efforts to determine its clinical utility.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1998

Do children with primary nocturnal enuresis have clinically significant behavior problems?

OBJECTIVE: To determine if primary nocturnal enuresis (PNE) is accompanied by significant behavioral comorbidity. DESIGN: A survey design using a standardized behavioral rating scale. SETTING: Behavioral pediatric clinics in the Midwest. PARTICIPANTS: Subjects with PNE (n=92) were selected from 122 consecutive referrals for enuresis. Criteria included age 5 years or older, PNE status, and wetting frequency of at least once per week. The clinical sample without PNE (n=92) was randomly selected from 429 consecutive referrals to the same pediatric clinics, stratified for age and sex. The nonclinical sample (n=92) was randomly selected by strata from the standardization sample (N=614) of the behavioral checklist used in the study. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE: The Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory (ECBI), a standardized parent report scale, was used to measure the degree of behavioral comorbidity. The ECBI yields 2 scores, Problem Intensity and Problem Number. RESULTS: Results from 2 separate 3 (group) x 2 (sex) analyses of variance indicated a significant main effect for group on Problem Intensity and Problem Number (P<.001). For Problem Intensity, post hoc comparisons indicated the mean of the PNE sample was significantly higher than the mean of the nonclinical sample (P<.05), but the mean scores of the clinical sample were significantly higher than those of both the PNE and nonclinical samples (P<.05). For Problem Number, post hoc comparisons revealed the means of the PNE and nonclinical samples did not differ from each other (P>.05) but were lower than the mean of the clinical sample (P<.05). CONCLUSION: Primary nocturnal enuresis does not present with significant behavioral comorbidity in most cases. The results suggest that, with the exception of an extraordinary clinical presentation, pediatricians should treat PNE as a common biobehavioral problem without a psychiatric component.

Child↗
PubMed1998

The relationship between lethality of attempted suicide and prior suicidal communications in a sample of residential youth.

Some type of suicidal communication precedes 80% of attempted and completed suicides in adolescents. This study investigates the relationship between the number of suicidal communications prior to an attempt and the lethality of the attempt in a sample of adolescent youth residing in a residential treatment facility. The sample consisted of 46 youth who had a suicide attempt while in a large group home residential facility over a 9-year period. Results indicated that attempters who made fewer suicidal communications beforehand tended to use more lethal methods in their attempts. Attempters with two or more preceding suicidal communications had significantly lower lethality in their attempts than did those with fewer suicidal communications. Few differences emerged between the groups in regards to demographic or psychosocial variables.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Behavioral and emotional problems of students with learning disabilities, serious emotional disturbance, or both conditions.

This study investigates the behavioral and emotional problems of children with learning disabilities (LD), serious emotional disturbance (SED), and LD/SED, using the Teacher Report Form (TRF) and Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL). The sample consisted of 217 students with LD, 72 with SED, and 68 with SED/LD, ages 6 to 18 (mean age = 11.5). The students with SED were rated more impaired than the students with LD on all TRF scales except Attention Problems, and on three of the eight CBCL syndrome scales. The children with LD differed from those with SED mainly in terms of severity of problems, not with respect to type of problem. It is concluded that students with co-morbid LD and SED are underidentified and underserved in special education systems.

Adolescent↗
PubMedDate not supplied

Arithmetic disabilities and ADD subtypes: implications for DSM-IV.

This study investigated whether specific academic deficits were associated with attention-deficit disorder (ADD) subtypes. Twenty students (ages 8-12) with attention-deficit disorder with hyperactivity (ADD/H) were compared to 20 students with attention-deficit disorder without hyperactivity (ADD/noH). Group differences were compared using a MANCOVA, and paired t tests were used to compare within-group differences. Dependent variables for the within-group differences were four achievement subtest scores from the Woodcock-Johnson Psycho-Educational Battery-Revised: Letter-Word Identification, Passage Comprehension, Calculation, and Applied Problems. Consistent with much of the previous research, no significant between-group differences were found on the achievement measures. Significant differences did, however, appear in the six within-group comparisons, all involving lower performance on the Math Calculations subtest. For students with ADD/H, only one comparison (with Math Applied Problems) reached significance. Students with ADD/noH, however, had significantly lower scores on the Calculation subtest compared to all of the other achievement subtests. These results provided additional support for the hypothesis that inattention exerts a specific and deleterious effect on the acquisition of arithmetic computation skills. These findings have important implications for the diagnosis and treatment of ADHD as conceptualized in the fourth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-IV; American Psychiatric Association, 1994), because they suggest that students with ADHD-Predominantly Inattentive Type may be at increased risk for arithmetic calculation deficits.

Attention↗