title: Normative Irritability in Youth: Developmental Findings From the Great Smoky Mountains Study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The goal of this study is to examine the developmental epidemiology of normative irritability and its tonic and phasic components in a longitudinal community sample of youth.
  
  
  METHODS
  Eight waves of data from the prospective, community Great Smoky Mountains Study (6,674 assessments of 1,420 participants) were used, covering children in the community 9 to 16 years of age. Youth and 1 parent were interviewed using the Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Assessment to assess tonic (touchy/easily annoyed, irritable mood, angry or resentful) and phasic (temper tantrums or anger outbursts) components of irritability, including frequency, duration, onset, and cross-context variability.
  
  
  RESULTS
  At any given point in childhood/adolescence, 51.4% (standard error [SE] = 1.4) of participants reported phasic irritability, 28.3% (SE = 1.2) reported tonic irritability, and 22.8% (SE = 1.1) reported both. These prevalence levels decreased with age but did not vary by sex. The overlap between tonic and phasic irritability was high (odds ratio = 5.8, 95% CI = 3.3-10.5, p < .0001), with little evidence of tonic occurring without phasic irritability. Both tonic and phasic irritability predicted one another over time, supporting both heterotypic and homotypic continuity. Low levels of either tonic or phasic irritability increased risk for disrupted functioning including service use, school suspensions, parental burden, and emotional symptoms both concurrently and at 1-year follow-up.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Irritability is relatively common, decreases with age but does not vary by sex, and at almost any level is associated with increased risk of disrupted functioning. Its relative components frequently overlap, although irritable outbursts are more common than irritable mood. Irritability appears to be a high-priority transdiagnostic marker for screening children in need of clinical attention.
authors.affiliation: Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC. Electronic address: william.copeland@duke.edu.
authors.forename: William E
authors.initials: WE
authors.lastname: Copeland
authors.affiliation: Emotion and Development Branch at the National Institute of Mental Health, Bethesda, MD.
authors.forename: Melissa A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Brotman
authors.affiliation: Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC.
authors.forename: E Jane
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Costello
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D041923:Adolescent Development; D000367:Age Factors; D000786:Anger; D001061:Appalachian Region / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D002657:Child Development; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007508:Irritable Mood; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D009657:North Carolina / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D011446:Prospective Studies; D000297:Psychology, Adolescent; D002666:Psychology, Child; D012737:Sex Factors
keywords: childhood; development; epidemiology; irritability; longitudinal