Roots of Mental Illness in Children

描述(由申请者提供)：纽约科学院正在主办一场名为《儿童精神疾病的根源》的会议，该会议定于2002年秋季举行。会议计划由Jean King博士和Craig Ferris博士(均为马萨诸塞大学医学院)组成的委员会组织，并与由其他几名专家组成的指导委员会协商。本次会议的目的是在动物研究和临床方法之间架起桥梁，研究儿童和青少年的心理健康和精神障碍。会议的前提是，在几种儿童障碍中观察到的常见症状或维度可能有助于我们概念化行为和神经发育的特殊特征--与环境因素的影响--在发育的早期阶段赋予精神疾病的易感性或韧性。长期目标是培养跨学科研究合作伙伴和政策倡议，以加强我们对儿童精神疾病的理解、诊断和治疗。儿童精神疾病的病因学为从发展的角度考虑其贡献提供了一个独特的机会。专注于大脑和行为发育的动物研究可能会有助于扩大我们对一些儿童障碍的理解。会议的形式将着重于儿童精神疾病的临床前和临床方法的整合。会议分为几个部分，每个部分包括基于动物和人类研究的报告；第三个部分将总结和整合前两个部分，并阐述动物和人类研究机构如何促进在理解儿童精神疾病根源方面的进展。来自不同背景的神经学家、行为科学家、心理学家、神经学家、精神病学家、社会工作者、其他卫生服务提供者、教育工作者和政策制定者将对这次会议感兴趣。听众将了解到，行为维度，如接近/退缩，可以提供一个建设性的框架，用于比较几种儿童精神疾病症状之间的行为和神经生物学相似性和差异。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The New York Academy of Sciences is sponsoring a conference titled Roots of Mental Illness in Children which is being scheduled for Fall, 2002. Conference program has been organized by a committee consisting of Drs. Jean King and Craig Ferris (both of University of Massachusetts Medical School), in consultation with a steering committee composed of several other experts. The objective of this conference is to build bridges between animal research and clinical approaches for studying mental health and disorders in children and adolescents. The premise of the conference is that the common symptoms, or dimensions, observed in several childhood disorders may help us conceptualize special features of behavioral and neural development that -- together with the impact of environmental factors -confer either susceptibility or resilience to mental illness during early stages of development. The long-term goal is to foster interdisciplinary research collaborators and policy initiatives to enhance our understanding, diagnosis and treatment of mental illness in children. The etiology of childhood mental illness provides a unique opportunity to consider the contribution from the developmental point of view. Animal studies that have focused on the development of brain and behavior are likely to prove helpful in expanding our understanding of some childhood disorders. The format of the conference will put strong emphasis on integration of preclinical and clinical approaches for childhood mental illnesses. The conference is organized into sessions, each consisting of presentations based on animal and human research; and a third that will summarize and integrate the first two as well as address how the body of animal and human research can facilitate progress toward understanding the roots of mental illness in children. This conference will be of interest to neuroscientists, behavioral scientists, psychologists, neurologists, psychiatrists, social workers, other health service providers, educators and policy makers from a variety of backgrounds. The audience will acquire an understanding that behavioral dimensions, such as approach/withdrawal, can provide a constructive framework for comparing behavioral and neurobiological similarities and differences among the symptoms of several childhood mental illnesses.