The Psychopathology of Institutionalized Children

Researchers randomized institutionalized children to foster care or to continued institutionalization, but both experimental groups were more impaired than a never-institutionalized group.

In a unique study of Romanian institutionalized children, researchers previously found greater cognitive impairments in institutionalized children than in those raised in social service–supported foster care (JW Psychiatry Feb 11 2008). The researchers' current report focuses on DSM-IV disorders, symptom counts, and functional impairments in 111 children initially raised in institutions. At ages 6 to 30 months, the children were randomly assigned to continued institutional care or to social service–supported foster care. A comparison group consisting of 59 never-institutionalized children had significantly higher birth weights than the institutionalized children. Comprehensive structured interviews with caretakers occurred when children wer…

Reviewing Author

Barbara Geller, MD

Disclosures

Nothing to disclose

Barbara Geller, MD

Disclosures

Nothing to disclose