Conclusion The results reported here show clearly that first onset of mental disorders usually occurs in childhood or adolescence.
Roughly half of all lifetime mental disorders in most studies start by the mid‐teens and three‐fourths by the mid‐20s. Later onsets are mostly secondary conditions.
The impulse‐control disorders have the earliest AOO distributions, with median AOO across countries of 7–9 years for attention‐deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), 7–15 for oppositional‐defiant disorder (ODD), 9–14 for conduct disorder (CD), and 13–21 for intermittent explosive disorder (IED).
Early‐onset of psychiatric symptoms were found to be specifically associated with conversion to non‐affective psychosis but not affective psychosis. This finding suggests that early AOO of certain psychiatric symptoms is an independent factor relevant for defining samples specifically at risk for schizophrenia.
Roughly half of all lifetime mental disorders in most studies start by the mid‐teens and three‐fourths by the mid‐20s. Later onsets are mostly secondary conditions. Severe disorders are typically preceded by less severe disorders that seldom are brought to clinical attention. Summary.
Impulse‐control disorders also have an extremely narrow age range of onset risk. For example, 80% of all lifetime ADHD begins in the age range 4–11, while the vast majority of ODD and CD begins between ages 5 and 15. Fully half of all lifetime IED begins in childhood or adolescence. Some anxiety disorders — the phobias and separation anxiety ...