title: Fourteen-year follow-up of speech/language-impaired and control children: psychiatric outcome.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To examine the association between early childhood speech and language disorders and young adult psychiatric disorders.
  
  
  METHODS
  In a longitudinal community study conducted in the Ottawa-Carleton region of Ontario, Canada, interviewers administered structured psychiatric interviews to age 19 participants who were originally identified as speech-impaired only, language-impaired, or nonimpaired at age 5. The first stage of the study took place in 1982 when participants were 5 years old, and the latest stage of the study took place between 1995 and 1997 when participants had a mean age of 19 years. This report examines the association between early childhood speech/language status and young adult psychiatric outcome.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Children with early language impairment had significantly higher rates of anxiety disorder in young adulthood compared with nonimpaired children. The majority of participants with anxiety disorders had a diagnosis of social phobia. Trends were found toward associations between language impairment and overall and antisocial personality disorder rates. Males from the language-impaired group had significantly higher rates of antisocial personality disorder compared with males from the control group. Age of onset and comorbidity did not differ by speech/language status. The majority of participants with a disorder had more than one.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Results support the association between early childhood speech and language functioning and young adult psychiatric disorder over a 14-year period. This association underscores the importance of effective and early interventions.
authors.affiliation: Division of Child Psychiatry, University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. joseph.beitchman@sickkids.on.ca
authors.forename: J H
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Beitchman
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Wilson
authors.forename: C J
authors.initials: CJ
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Atkinson
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Young
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Adlaf
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Escobar
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Douglas
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D017668:Age of Onset; D001008:Anxiety Disorders / Q000209:etiology*; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015897:Comorbidity; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D007806:Language Disorders / Q000150:complications* / Q000523:psychology; D008297:Male; D013064:Speech Disorders / Q000150:complications* / Q000523:psychology