Types of Disorders and Demographic Variables in A Canadian Child Psychiatry Population

Abstract

The value and extent of epidemiologic investigations of adult psychopathology is contrasted with the paucity of similar data in child psychiatry. Some findings from American and British sources on the epidemiology of childhood psychopathology are noted but it is not known whether these findings would also be true in the Canadian setting, and what little Canadian data are available are not readily comparable with much of these foreign data. Using both the D.S.M.II diagnostic schema and the child's symptoms as the definition of type of disorder, the relationship between type of disorder and demographic variables among 96 children attending a Canadian Regional Treatment Centre was investigated. The results indicate that, in general, the relationship between type of disorder and age is consistent with reports from American and other foreign studies. No significant associations between social class and type of disorder could be discerned. The analysis of sex and type of disorder produced somewhat contradictory results. Using symptom data, the possibility of changing patterns of symptom expression (toward increased proportion of externalizing symptoms) among girls is raised. If the reference point is diagnosis rather than symptom type, the results are more consistent with expected notions of neurotic disturbances being more common among girls, and conduct problems being more common among boys, but the possibility of sex stereotyping on the part of the diagnosing physician cannot be ruled out. Finally, it is suggested that population studies are needed to investigate further the relationships between childhood psychopathology and demographic variables.