Child Psychopathology and Developmental Disabilities Study Section – CPDD

Topics

• Diagnosis, etiology, comorbidity, and developmental course of developmental disorders including autism, intellectual disabilities, motor problems, and learning disabilities.
• Diagnosis, etiology, comorbidity, clinical course and outcomes in child and adolescent psychopathology including but not limited to mood disorders, suicidality, anxiety disorders, sleep disorders, behavior disorders, eating disorders, stress disorders, personality disorders, and substance use disorders.
• Short- and long-term behavioral, biobehavioral, and clinical outcome of infants, children, or adolescents with identified risk factors including prematurity, low birth weight, genetic risk, environmental risk and teratogen exposure, including maternal substance use in utero.
• Environmental (including social determinants and adverse child experiences), social, emotional, and cognitive contributions to developmental disorders and child or adolescent psychopathology, with emphasis on the relationship between these factors and clinical or functional outcomes over time and mediating pathways.
• Biological, genetic, and neural factors contributing to developmental disorders and child and adolescent psychopathology, including genetic studies, neuropathological studies, neurochemical and neuroimaging studies, and studies of teratogenic exposures.
• Disorders affecting behavioral outcome including studies of genetic disorders and acquired disorders due to prenatal exposure to alcohol, tobacco, or drugs, and prenatal or postnatal exposure to lead, mercury and other toxins.
• Research addressing early identification, treatment and/or rehabilitation methods for children and adolescents with developmental or mental health disorders.
• Research using computational approaches, consortium generated datasets, or data integration across studies to create large scale datasets to address CPDD relevant topics.

Shared Interests and Overlaps

There are shared interests in psychopathology with Adult Lifespan Psychopathology Study Section (ALP). Applications that emphasize child and adolescent psychopathology, and studies of adults with neurodevelopmental disorders originating in early development (e.g., autism spectrum disorders, ADHD, Down Syndrome, etc.) or studies of caregivers of individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders (e.g., caregivers with the Fragile X (FMR1) gene, adult caregivers of individuals with Down syndrome or autism) are reviewed in CPDD. Applications that emphasize adult psychopathology and psychopathology and/or mental health problems in adulthood or those that are most prevalent in late adolescence and spanning into adulthood (e.g., schizophrenia) are reviewed in ALP.

There are shared interests in developmental psychopathology with Psychosocial Development, Risk, and Prevention (PDRP). Applications that emphasize diagnosis, etiology, comorbidity, and outcomes of psychological disorders are reviewed in CPDD. Applications that emphasize nonclinical samples, children at risk, or children not yet diagnosed, and those that focus on preventative interventions, are reviewed in PDRP, especially if the emphasis is on family/contextual processes or factors that confer risk. Applications that emphasize environmental, social, and family risk factors such as those involving family relations, parent-child interactions, peer interactions, and/or exposure to violence are also reviewed in PDRP.

There are shared interests in brain development with Developmental Brain Disorders (DBD). Applications that emphasize developmental disabilities affecting behavioral outcome and mental health disorders are reviewed in CPDD. Applications that emphasize understanding brain development in atypical clinical populations are reviewed in DBD. Applications including animal models of developmental disorders are reviewed in DBD even if the research involves human participants.

There are shared interests in behavioral and psychiatric conditions with Neurological, Mental and Behavioral Health (NMBH). Applications that emphasize studies of the etiology, determinants, distribution, and outcomes of neurological, mental, and behavioral conditions and disorders from a population health perspective are reviewed in NMBH. Applications that emphasize epidemiological study designs to examine determinants, predictors, and biomarkers associated with behavioral, psychiatric, and substance use disorders exclusively in human subpopulations are reviewed in NMBH. Applications that focus on non-population-based/epidemiological applications that emphasize the neurobiological foundations underlying neurodevelopmental or psychiatric disorders in humans in early development are reviewed in CPDD.

There are shared interests in child psychopathology with Biobehavioral Mechanisms of Emotion, Stress, and Health (MESH). Applications that emphasize examining aspects of sleep in relation to the diagnosis, etiology, comorbidity, and developmental course of child neurodevelopmental disorders or child/adolescent psychopathology are reviewed in CPDD (i.e., examination of sleep in relation to depressive symptoms in adolescents). Applications that emphasize prenatal-origin or childhood stress in the context of child psychopathology are reviewed in MESH if stress-responsive biological systems are involved as mechanisms or outcome measures. Applications that emphasize examining sleep and circadian rhythms and their disorders in childhood and adolescence are reviewed in MESH.

There are shared interests in substance use disorders with Addiction Risks and Mechanisms (ARM). Applications that emphasize biobehavioral, and clinical outcome of infants, children, or adolescents with maternal substance use in utero are reviewed in CPDD. Applications that emphasize studies of substance use in children, adolescents, and early adults are reviewed in ARM.

There are shared interests in neurotoxicology with Neurotoxicology and Alcohol (NAL). Applications that emphasize infant and child developmental outcomes following early teratogen exposure are more reviewed in CPDD. Applications that emphasize the general effects of environmental toxicants (such as pesticides or metals) or alcohol on the central nervous system are reviewed in NAL.

There are shared interests in psychopathology with Neural Basis of Psychopathology, Addictions and Sleep Disorders (NPAS). Applications that emphasize behavioral phenotypes of child and adolescent psychopathology are reviewed in CPDD. Applications that emphasize understanding brain mechanisms psychopathology across lifespan are reviewed in NPAS.

There are shared interests in language development with Language and Communication (LCOM). Applications that emphasize language development in children with developmental disabilities, such as Fragile X or autism spectrum disorders, are reviewed in CPDD if language development is considered as one of multiple manifestations of the disorder. Applications that emphasize typical and atypical language and communication development across the lifespan are reviewed in LCOM.