title: Brief report: can irritability act as a marker of psychopathology?
abstract: Irritability is ubiquitous in child and adolescent psychopathology. This study aimed to determine if the Affective Reactivity Index (ARI), a measure of irritability, could be used to screen for psychopathology in adolescents. The clinical sample comprised 31 adolescents with a DSM-IV diagnosis. The control sample was 31 gender and age matched adolescents recruited through schools. Both samples completed a test battery that included the Affective Reactivity Index. The clinical participants reported significantly higher levels of irritability than the control sample by both self- and parent-report. Using ROC analysis a cut off value of 4 on the self-report ARI was found to be optimal for indicating psychopathology; with a specificity of 77.4% and a sensitivity of 77.4%, the area under the curve was 0.86. This paper provides evidence to suggest that irritability may be used as a general predictor of psychopathology in adolescents.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Developmental Psychiatry and Psychology, Department of Psychiatry, Southern Clinical School, Monash University, Building 2, 270 Ferntree Gully Road, Notting Hill, Victoria 3168, Australia. Electronic address: melissa.mulraney@monash.edu.
authors.forename: Melissa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mulraney
authors.affiliation: Centre for Developmental Psychiatry and Psychology, Department of Psychiatry, Southern Clinical School, Monash University, Building 2, 270 Ferntree Gully Road, Notting Hill, Victoria 3168, Australia. Electronic address: glenn.melvin@monash.edu.
authors.forename: Glenn
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Melvin
authors.affiliation: Centre for Developmental Psychiatry and Psychology, Department of Psychiatry, Southern Clinical School, Monash University, Building 2, 270 Ferntree Gully Road, Notting Hill, Victoria 3168, Australia. Electronic address: bruce.tonge@monash.edu.
authors.forename: Bruce
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Tonge
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007508:Irritable Mood; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000523:psychology*; D011581:Psychological Tests; D012372:ROC Curve; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires
keywords: Adolescence; Affective Reactivity Index; Irritability; Psychopathology