The course of psychological disorders from childhood to adulthood

Background: Only few prospective longitudinal studies have described the co urse of psychological disorders from childhood to adulthood. The investigat ions carried out the date almost without exception show numerous methodolog ical weaknesses. Objective: The course of psychological disorders in 8-year -old children till adulthood. Methods: The ACCA-study followed 321 8-year-o ld children till the age of 25 years. Highly structured interviews were use d for case definition. Diagnoses were based on ICD-9 for the first two wave s (8 and 13 Fears) and on ICD-IO for the last two waves (18 and 25 years). Results: The overall stability of psychological disorders was 50% between c onsecutive waves. The stability of antisocial externalizing disorders was h igher than that of emotional/internalizing disorders. 2%-10% of the childre n and adolescents showed chronic psychological disorders. Conclusions: A si gnificant expansion of therapeutical institutions is required.