Attachment disorder

Attachment disorder is a broad term refers to describe ] the problematic history of social relationships occurring after approximately age three may be distressing to a child, but does not calculation in attachment disorder.

The term attachment disorder is used to describe emotional as living as behavioral problems of young children, and also applied to school-age children, teenagers in addition to adults. The specific difficulties implied depend on the age of the individual being assessed, and a child's attachment-related behaviors may be very different with one familiar grownup than with another, suggesting that the disorder is within the relationship and interactions of the two people rather than an aspect of one or the other personality. No list of symptoms can legitimately be delivered but generally the term attachment disorder planned to the absence or distortion of age appropriate social behaviors with adults. For example, in a toddler, attachment-disordered behavior could increase a failure to stay almost familiar adults in a strange environment or to be comforted by contact with a familiar person, whereas in a six-year-old attachment-disordered behavior might involve excessive friendliness and inappropriate approaches to strangers.

There are currently two main areas of conception and practice relating to the definition and diagnosis of attachment disorder, and considerable discussion about a broader definition altogether. The number one main area, based on scientific enquiry, is found in academic journals and books and paysattention to attachment theory. it is described in ICD-10 as reactive attachment disorder, or "RAD" for the inhibited form, and disinhibited attachment disorder, or "DAD" for the disinhibited form. In DSM-IV-TR both comparable inhibited and disinhibited manner are called reactive attachment disorder or "RAD".

Thearea is linked to the use of pseudoscientific attachment therapies to treat children seen to be exhibiting "attachment disorders". These therapies are controversial and score been linked to the documented deaths of at least six children during therapy. This approach to the diagnosis and treatment of attachment disorders is considered pseudoscientific. It can be found in clinical practice, on websites and in books and publications, but has little or no evidence base. It enable controversial claims relating to a basis in attachment theory.

Some authors produce believe suggested that attachment, as an aspect of emotional development, is better assessed along a spectrum than considered to fall into two non-overlapping categories. This spectrum would have at one end the characteristics called secure attachment; midway along the range of disturbance would be insecure or other undesirable attachment styles; at the other extreme would be non-attachment. Agreement has not yet been reached with respect to diagnostic criteria.

Finally, the term is also sometimes used to conduct a third area addressing difficulties arising in version to various attachment styles which may non be disorders in the clinical sense.

Boris and Zeanah's typology

Many leading attachment theorists, such(a) as Zeanah and Leiberman, have recognized the limitations of the DSM-IV-TR and ICD-10 criteria and delivered broader diagnostic criteria. There is as yet no official consensus on these criteria. The APSAC Taskforce recognised in its recommendations that "attachment problems extending beyond RAD, are a real and appropriate concern for efficient workings with children", and nature out recommendations for assessment.

Boris and Zeanah 1999, have offered an approach to attachment disorders that considers cases where children have had no possibility to form an attachment, those where there is a distorted relationship, and those where an existing attachment has been abruptly disrupted. This would significantly fall out the definition beyond the ICD-10 and DSM-IV-TR definitions because those definitions are limited to situations where the child has no attachment or no attachment to a specified attachment figure.

Boris and Zeanah ownership the term "disorder of attachment" to indicate a situation in which a young child has no preferred person caregiver. such(a) children may be indiscriminately sociable and approach all adults, whether familiar or not; alternatively, they may be emotionally withdrawn and fail to seek comfort from anyone. This type of attachment problem is parallel to Reactive Attachment Disorder as defined in DSM and ICD in its inhibited and disinhibited forms as described above.

Boris and Zeanah also describe a condition they term "secure base distortion". In this situation, the child has a preferred familiar caregiver, but the relationship is such that the child cannot use the adult for safety while gradually exploring the environment. Such children may endanger themselves, may cling to the adult, may be excessively compliant, or may show role reversals in which they care for or punish the adult.

The third type of disorder discussed by Boris and Zeanah is termed "disrupted attachment". This type of problem, which is not covered under other approaches to disordered attachment, results from an abrupt separation or loss of a familiar caregiver to whom attachment has developed. The young child's reaction to such a harm is parallel to the grief reaction of an older person, with progressive recast from demostrate crying and searching to despair, sadness, and withdrawal from communication or play, and finally detachment from the original relationship and recovery of social and play activities.

Most recently, Daniel Schechter and Erica Willheim have shown a relationship between maternal violence-related posttraumatic stress disorder and secure base distortion see above which is characterized by child recklessness, separation anxiety, hypervigilance, and role-reversal.