Roots of Mental Illness in Children

描述（由申请人提供）：纽约科学院正在主办一个名为“儿童精神疾病的根源”的会议，该会议定于2002年秋季举行。会议日程由一个由博士组成的委员会组织。吉恩·金和克雷格·费里斯（两人都来自马萨诸塞大学医学院），与由其他几位专家组成的指导委员会进行了磋商。本次会议的目的是在动物研究和临床方法之间建立桥梁，以研究儿童和青少年的心理健康和障碍。会议的前提是，在几种儿童疾病中观察到的共同症状或维度可以帮助我们概念化行为和神经发育的特殊特征，这些特征与环境因素的影响一起，赋予了早期发展阶段对精神疾病的易感性或复原力。长期目标是促进跨学科研究合作者和政策举措，以提高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提供了一个独特的机会，从发展的角度来考虑其贡献。专注于大脑和行为发育的动物研究很可能有助于扩大我们对一些儿童疾病的理解。会议的形式将着重强调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；第三部分将对前两部分进行总结和整合，并阐述动物和人类研究如何促进对儿童精神疾病根源的理解。本次会议将吸引来自不同背景的神经科学家、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。观众将了解行为维度，如接近/退出，可以为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性提供建设性的框架。

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.