Breslau N
Department of Psychiatry, Henry Ford Hospital, Detroit, MI 48202.
Arch Gen Psychiatry. 1990 Jan;47(1):15-20. doi: 10.1001/archpsyc.1990.01810130017003.
Previous research has shown that children with physical conditions involving the brain are at increased risk for psychopathology. It is unclear whether brain dysfunction leads to disturbance directly or whether it does so by increasing the children's vulnerability to environmental stress. I examined the vulnerability hypothesis in a sample of 157 children with cerebral palsy, myelodysplasia, or multiple handicaps and in 339 randomly selected controls. Data on psychopathology came from direct interviews with the children; data on the family environment came from mothers' reports. Physical disabilities were associated with significant increases in depressive symptoms and inattention. Family environment had a significant main effect on depressive symptoms; effect on disabled children was not significantly different from effect on controls. Family environment had no significant effects on symptoms of inattention in disabled children. The findings provided no support for the hypothesis that brain dysfunction renders children vulnerable to environmental stress.
先前的研究表明，患有涉及大脑的身体疾病的儿童出现精神病理学问题的风险更高。目前尚不清楚大脑功能障碍是直接导致精神障碍，还是通过增加儿童对环境压力的易感性来导致精神障碍。我对157名患有脑瘫、脊髓发育不良或多重残疾的儿童以及339名随机选择的对照组儿童进行了抽样，检验了易感性假说。精神病理学数据来自对儿童的直接访谈；家庭环境数据来自母亲的报告。身体残疾与抑郁症状和注意力不集中的显著增加有关。家庭环境对抑郁症状有显著的主效应；对残疾儿童的影响与对对照组儿童的影响没有显著差异。家庭环境对残疾儿童的注意力不集中症状没有显著影响。这些发现不支持大脑功能障碍使儿童易受环境压力影响这一假说。
