Use of the child behavior checklist in discriminating posttraumatic stress disorder and dysthymia among children and adolescents.

Abstract

An important issue in clinically assessing child and adolescent psychopathology is basing diagnoses on information from sources other than the child's self-report, such as parents and teachers. Additional problems arise when children show very similar symptomatology for different disorders. Differentiating between behaviors regarded normal for a certain age, and those behaviors considered deviant or pathological is often difficult. Some examples of childhood disorders sharing similar symptomatology are Oppositional-Defiant Disorder (ODD) and Conduct Disorder (CD) Two disorders also commonly diagnosed in children are Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and Dysthymia like ODD and CD, these two disorders also share similar symptomatology. In addition to this similarity, PTSD and Dvsthvmia are also often diagnosed in the adult population. Therefore, differentiating between adult symptomatology and that of children is also an important issue. The present study compared 53 children and adolescents diab'l10sed with PTSD to 47 children who had been diagnosed with Dysthymia. The comparison between the two groups was made on the basis of the participants' scores on the eight syndrome scales of the Child Behavior Checklist (CBelj. A multivariate analysis of variance was conducted to determine if the scores may be used in diagnostic prediction. Findings suggest that the CBCL does not have the ability to discriminate effectively between PTSD and Dysthymia. Although the results of this research were not significant, the CBCL should not be ruled out as a useful tool in the overall diagnostic process.