A pilot follow-up study of childhood soft signs and the development of adult psychopathology.

A subgroup of subjects (4 of 12) with childhood soft signs and adolescent anxiety-withdrawal disorders were followed up into adulthood and assessed for soft signs and psychiatric diagnoses. These subjects continued to have soft-sign abnormalities and most had adult anxiety or affective disorders, including obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). In contrast, control subjects with childhood soft signs but no adolescent anxiety disorders had fewer soft signs at follow-up and no discrete adult anxiety or affective disorders, but they did have obsessive-compulsive symptoms that did not meet criteria for OCD.