Atypical neurodevelopment includes a broad range of common conditions affecting about 1 in 6 children. Recent data indicate that the prevalence of neurodevelopmental conditions has increased over the last two decades, with important public health implications. In addition to the personal impact on children and their families, neurodevelopmental conditions have a significant associated societal cost to meet long-term challenges including school difficulties, underemployment, and treatment of associated behavioral and psychiatric manifestations.
Growing and converging evidence supports the presence of signs of atypical neurodevelopment as early as in the first two years of life, allowing its effective identification and the implementation of early intervention strategies. However, while the last 20 years have witnessed a substantial advance in the ability to pose an early diagnosis of neurodevelopmental condition, the comprehension of neurodevelopmental trajectories is still an unmet need.
It is not uncommon that children and adolescents with neurodevelopmental conditions might suffer from comorbid psychological and behavioral difficulties, such as anxious-obsessive symptoms, mood alterations, and psychotic-like experiences, as well as impulsive, aggressive, and disruptive behaviors. Often, such additional difficulties represent the major cause of disability, requiring their prioritization above the core symptomatology of the neurodevelopmental condition. Thus, it is critically important to elucidate mechanisms underlying variable expression and pleiotropy of neurodevelopmental phenotypes. Gaining such knowledge may help predicting the longitudinal developmental patterns of neuromotor and psychosocial correlates of atypical neurodevelopment.
It is imperative to encourage further research into biomarkers, environmental determinants, and interventions for atypical neurodevelopment and overlapping conditions throughout the lifespan. Mapping neurodevelopmental trajectories may result in a better understanding of biobehavioral pathways potentially leading to an increased risk of neuropsychiatric conditions in adolescence and early adulthood. Such effort may inform healthcare professionals and the general public about the presence and the need for intervention of atypical neurodevelopmental traits, even in subclinical populations, which can undermine an individual’s ability to reach satisfactory outcomes in life.
In particular, the aims of this Research Topic will be:
• to evaluate the impact of biological and psychosocial risk factors for neuropsychiatric disorders in the context of a neurodevelopmental vulnerability
• to unveil longitudinally behavioral and pharmacological preventative strategies to mitigate pathological trajectories in mental health
• to advance understanding of mental health needs and in the transition age between childhood and adulthood
• to reappraise and evaluate mental health services in the transition age between childhood and adulthood
• to identify emerging mental health needs since the COVID-19 outbreak in the continuum between childhood and adulthood
Atypical neurodevelopment includes a broad range of common conditions affecting about 1 in 6 children. Recent data indicate that the prevalence of neurodevelopmental conditions has increased over the last two decades, with important public health implications. In addition to the personal impact on children and their families, neurodevelopmental conditions have a significant associated societal cost to meet long-term challenges including school difficulties, underemployment, and treatment of associated behavioral and psychiatric manifestations.
Growing and converging evidence supports the presence of signs of atypical neurodevelopment as early as in the first two years of life, allowing its effective identification and the implementation of early intervention strategies. However, while the last 20 years have witnessed a substantial advance in the ability to pose an early diagnosis of neurodevelopmental condition, the comprehension of neurodevelopmental trajectories is still an unmet need.
It is not uncommon that children and adolescents with neurodevelopmental conditions might suffer from comorbid psychological and behavioral difficulties, such as anxious-obsessive symptoms, mood alterations, and psychotic-like experiences, as well as impulsive, aggressive, and disruptive behaviors. Often, such additional difficulties represent the major cause of disability, requiring their prioritization above the core symptomatology of the neurodevelopmental condition. Thus, it is critically important to elucidate mechanisms underlying variable expression and pleiotropy of neurodevelopmental phenotypes. Gaining such knowledge may help predicting the longitudinal developmental patterns of neuromotor and psychosocial correlates of atypical neurodevelopment.
It is imperative to encourage further research into biomarkers, environmental determinants, and interventions for atypical neurodevelopment and overlapping conditions throughout the lifespan. Mapping neurodevelopmental trajectories may result in a better understanding of biobehavioral pathways potentially leading to an increased risk of neuropsychiatric conditions in adolescence and early adulthood. Such effort may inform healthcare professionals and the general public about the presence and the need for intervention of atypical neurodevelopmental traits, even in subclinical populations, which can undermine an individual’s ability to reach satisfactory outcomes in life.
In particular, the aims of this Research Topic will be:
• to evaluate the impact of biological and psychosocial risk factors for neuropsychiatric disorders in the context of a neurodevelopmental vulnerability
• to unveil longitudinally behavioral and pharmacological preventative strategies to mitigate pathological trajectories in mental health
• to advance understanding of mental health needs and in the transition age between childhood and adulthood
• to reappraise and evaluate mental health services in the transition age between childhood and adulthood
• to identify emerging mental health needs since the COVID-19 outbreak in the continuum between childhood and adulthood
