Irritability in children: Promising advances in measurement and treatment

Abstract

Extreme irritability is a challenging quality for children and adolescents and those that live with them; one that often brings them into treatment due to the impact on others. Further, it also leads to a cycle of interpersonal rejection from others based on the unpleasantness of interaction with such an individual. For these reasons, both anger and irritability have received increasing attention from researchers and clinicians in recent years, yet conceptualization is still murky, as is measurement. Is it temperament? Is it a sign of pathology? Specific to mood disorders or a cross-sectional symptom? Stable and enduring, or not?