Excessive Crying, Irritability in Infancy Associated With Later Behavioral Problems

Infants who cry excessively (more than 3 hours at least 1 day/week) may be more likely to experience behavioral problems in childhood and adolescence than infants who cry less, suggests areport published yesterday in theJournal of the Academy of Child& Adolescent Psychiatry. Brain scans of these children at age 10 also revealed that the amygdala —a part of the brain involved with assessing threat and regulating emotional responses—was smaller in those who cried excessively and/or were irritable as infants.“Most infants who cry excessively grow to be healthy, typically developing children, and it remains reasonable to remind parents of the good prognosis,” wrote Sara Sammallahti, Ph.D., of Erasmus MC Sophia Children’s Hospital in the Netherlands and colleagues. “Nonetheless, … our results su ggest parent-reported excessive crying should not be simply shrugged off: it could reflect one of the earliest child markers of vulnerability to develop behavioral problems.”The researchers analyzed data from the Generation R Study cohort, which included 4,751 children born in the Netherlands between 2002 and 2006. As part of the study, parents were asked to report if their three-month-old infants cried excessively by answering yes or no to the question “Has your child ever cried for more than 3 hours a day (24 hours) during the last week?” and/or if the baby was irritable, using the Mother and Baby Scales irritability scale. The parents were also asked to complete ...
Source: Psychiatr News - Category: Psychiatry Tags: aggression crying depression externalizing infant internalizing irritability irritable Journal of the Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry Source Type: research