Michael Rutter

Bio: Michael Rutter is an academic researcher from King's College London. The author has contributed to research in topics: Autism & Conduct disorder. The author has an hindex of 188, co-authored 676 publications receiving 151592 citations. Previous affiliations of Michael Rutter include VCU Medical Center & Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences.

Brief Report: Autism in Individuals with Down Syndrome

Abstract: As an off-shoot of a study examining the reliability and validity of an adapted version of the Pre-Linguistic Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (A-PL-ADOS), 13 individuals with Down syndrome with IQs ranging between 24 and 48 were administered the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R) and the A-PL-ADOS, which are well-validated interview and observational diagnostic measures. Three out of 13 met lifetime criteria on the ADI-R, but none of these three showed behavior that met the criterion for autism on the A-PL-ADOS (although two nearly did so). However, two individuals did meet the A-PL-ADOS criterion and showed behavior that fell only just short of meeting lifetime criteria on the ADI-R. Altogether, 5 individuals with Down syndrome may be considered to show an autism spectrum disorder. Of the remaining 8, some showed a few autistic features, and some showed none. The findings raise both methodological and conceptual issues.

Child and adolescent psychiatry: past scientific achievements and challenges for the future

Abstract: The worldwide history of scientific achievements in child and adolescent psychopathology is reviewed from the mid-twentieth century onwards. Attention is drawn, e.g., to diagnostic distinctions, measures of psychopathology, the several roles of epidemiological longitudinal studies, temperament and personality, developmental psychopathology, the use of 'natural experiments' to test causal inferences, environmental risks, the importance of gene-environment interplay, the relative coming together of initially diverse psychological therapies, the use of randomized-controlled trials to assess treatment efficacy, and the value and limitations of pharmacotherapy. The article ends with a look ahead to the most important opportunities and challenges for child and adolescent psychiatry, plus the hazards that need to be avoided.

Children of West Indian immigrants. III. Home circumstances and family patterns.

Abstract: SUMMARY A total population survey was made of all 10-yr-old children in an inner London borough. As part of this study, systematic standardised interviews were held with random samples of parents of children from West Indian families and of children from non-immigrant families. In contrast to the situation in the Caribbean, the nuclear family was the norm for West Indian families living in London, just as it was non-immigrant families. In many respects the West Indians and non-immigrant families were closely similar. No differences were found in rates of parental mental disorder or criminality and the quality of family relationships was the same in the two groups. However, the West Indian parents were more likely to hold semiskilled or unskilled manual jobs and to live in poor quality overcrowded housing. In spite of this, they were also more likely to own their own house. West Indian families had many more children and differed somewhat in their patterns of child rearing. The significance of these findings is discussed in terms of both likely effects on child development and also the future implications for West Indian families living in London.

Treating Autistic Children in a Family Context

Abstract: Infantile autism is a complex disorder which involves abnormalities of development and of behavior, both of which need to be taken into account in planning any type of treatment program During the 1960s there was an increasing number of reports of the successful use of behavioral techniques in alleviating these many and various problems in individual children Operant approaches were employed to aid the development of positive or normal features such as imitation, eye contact, social skills, speech usage and communication (Hingtgen et al, 1965, 1967; Hingtgen & Trost, 1966; Lovaas, 1966, 1967; Lovaas et al, 1965b, Metz 1965; McConnell, 1967; Halpern, 1970; Mathis, 1971; Risley & Wolf, 1967; Sloane et al, 1968) Operant procedures were also used to eliminate a wide range of deviant behaviors including self-injury, temper tantrums, aggressive behavior, hyperactivity, encopresis, and negativism (Lovaas et al, 1965a, b, 1966; Tate & Baroff, 1966; Graziano, 1970; Wetzel et al, 1966; Wolf et al, 1964, 1967; Maier, 1971; Marshall, 1966; Sulzbacher & Costello, 1970; Brown & Pace, 1969) It became clear that operant approaches provided a useful set of therapeutic interventions which could achieve fairly rapid results in terms of alteration of specific behaviors, if the child was treated daily by skilled professionals on a one-to-one basis in a well-controlled inpatient setting

The need to belong: Desire for interpersonal attachments as a fundamental human motivation.

Abstract: A hypothesized need to form and maintain strong, stable interpersonal relationships is evaluated in light of the empirical literature. The need is for frequent, nonaversive interactions within an ongoing relational bond. Consistent with the belongingness hypothesis, people form social attachments readily under most conditions and resist the dissolution of existing bonds. Belongingness appears to have multiple and strong effects on emotional patterns and on cognitive processes. Lack of attachments is linked to a variety of ill effects on health, adjustment, and well-being. Other evidence, such as that concerning satiation, substitution, and behavioral consequences, is likewise consistent with the hypothesized motivation. Several seeming counterexamples turned out not to disconfirm the hypothesis. Existing evidence supports the hypothesis that the need to belong is a powerful, fundamental, and extremely pervasive motivation.

The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire: A Research Note

Abstract: A novel behavioural screening questionnaire, the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ), was administered along with Rutter questionnaires to parents and teachers of 403 children drawn from dental and psychiatric clinics. Scores derived from the SDQ and Rutter questionnaires were highly correlated; parent-teacher correlations for the two sets of measures were comparable or favoured the SDQ. The two sets of measures did not differ in their ability to discriminate between psychiatric and dental clinic attenders. These preliminary findings suggest that the SDQ functions as well as the Rutter questionnaires while offering the following additional advantages: a focus on strengths as well as difficulties; better coverage of inattention, peer relationships, and prosocial behaviour; a shorter format; and a single form suitable for both parents and teachers, perhaps thereby increasing parent-teacher correlations.

Prevalence, Severity, and Comorbidity of 12-Month DSM-IV Disorders in the National Comorbidity Survey Replication

Abstract: Background Little is known about the general population prevalence or severity of DSM-IV mental disorders. Objective To estimate 12-month prevalence, severity, and comorbidity of DSM-IV anxiety, mood, impulse control, and substance disorders in the recently completed US National Comorbidity Survey Replication. Design and Setting Nationally representative face-to-face household survey conducted between February 2001 and April 2003 using a fully structured diagnostic interview, the World Health Organization World Mental Health Survey Initiative version of the Composite International Diagnostic Interview. Participants Nine thousand two hundred eighty-two English-speaking respondents 18 years and older. Main Outcome Measures Twelve-month DSM-IV disorders. Results Twelve-month prevalence estimates were anxiety, 18.1%; mood, 9.5%; impulse control, 8.9%; substance, 3.8%; and any disorder, 26.2%. Of 12-month cases, 22.3% were classified as serious; 37.3%, moderate; and 40.4%, mild. Fifty-five percent carried only a single diagnosis; 22%, 2 diagnoses; and 23%, 3 or more diagnoses. Latent class analysis detected 7 multivariate disorder classes, including 3 highly comorbid classes representing 7% of the population. Conclusion Although mental disorders are widespread, serious cases are concentrated among a relatively small proportion of cases with high comorbidity.

Human biochemical genetics

Abstract: So far in this course we have dealt entirely with the evolution of characters that are controlled by simple Mendelian inheritance at a single locus. There are notes on the course website about gametic disequilibrium and how allele frequencies change at two loci simultaneously, but we didn’t discuss them. In every example we’ve considered we’ve imagined that we could understand something about evolution by examining the evolution of a single gene. That’s the domain of classical population genetics. For the next few weeks we’re going to be exploring a field that’s actually older than classical population genetics, although the approach we’ll be taking to it involves the use of population genetic machinery. If you know a little about the history of evolutionary biology, you may know that after the rediscovery of Mendel’s work in 1900 there was a heated debate between the “biometricians” (e.g., Galton and Pearson) and the “Mendelians” (e.g., de Vries, Correns, Bateson, and Morgan). Biometricians asserted that the really important variation in evolution didn’t follow Mendelian rules. Height, weight, skin color, and similar traits seemed to

Adolescence-limited and life-course-persistent antisocial behavior: A developmental taxonomy.

Abstract: This chapter suggests that delinquency conceals two distinct categories of individuals, each with a unique natural history and etiology: A small group engages in antisocial behavior of one sort or another at every life stage, whereas a larger group is antisocial only during adolescence. According to the theory of life-course-persistent antisocial behavior, children's neuropsychological problems interact cumulatively with their criminogenic environments across development, culminating m a pathological personality. According to the theory of adolescence-limited antisocial behavior, a contemporary maturity gap encourages teens to mimic antisocial behavior in ways that are normative and adjustive. There are marked individual differences in the stability of antisocial behavior. The chapter reviews the mysterious relationship between age and antisocial behavior. Some youths who refrain from antisocial behavior may, for some reason, not sense the maturity gap and therefore lack the hypothesized motivation for experimenting with crime.