J Neuropsychiatry Clin Neurosci 1991; 3:186-189
Copyright © 1991 by American Neuropsychiatric Association
A pilot follow-up study of childhood soft signs and the development of adult psychopathology
E Hollander, CM DeCaria, B Aronowitz, DF Klein, MR Liebowitz and D Shaffer
Department of Psychiatry, College of Physicians and Surgeons, Columbia University, New York, NY 10032.
A subgroup of subjects (4 of 12) with childhood soft signs and adolescent
anxiety-withdrawal disorders were followed up into adulthood and assessed
for soft signs and psychiatric diagnoses. These subjects continued to have
soft-sign abnormalities and most had adult anxiety or affective disorders,
including obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). In contrast, control
subjects with childhood soft signs but no adolescent anxiety disorders had
fewer soft signs at follow-up and no discrete adult anxiety or affective
disorders, but they did have obsessive- compulsive symptoms that did not
meet criteria for OCD.
