Callous and unemotional traits in UK children and adolescents
January 03, 2008
Dr Paul Moran and colleagues at the Institute of Psychiatry at King's have published a report on the predictive utility of callous and unemotional traits in a representative sample of 5770 young people from Great Britain in the January issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry.
Interest in childhood psychopathy has grown and although the concept is controversial, if 'flegling psychopaths' could be successfully identified, this might provide a breakthrough in the prevention of persistent antisocial behaviour. Few studies have highlighted the importance of identifying callous and unemotional traits in community samples and there is sparse data on the predictive utility of these. The researchers set out to examine the correlates and predictive utility of callous and unemotional traits in a large epidemiologically representative sample of young people in Great Britain.
The report is entitled: Callous and unemotional traits in children and adolescents living in Great Britain and is published in the January issue of the British Journal of Psychiatry: (2008) 192: 65-66. doi: 10.1192/bjp.bp.106.034876. Authors were: Paul Moran, MSc, MD, MRCPsych, Health Services and Population Research Department; Tamsin Ford, MSc, PhD, MRC Psych, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry; Georgia Butler, MSc, HSPR, and Professor Robert Goodman, PHD, FRCPsych, Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. All researchers are based at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London.