Wikipedia:Peer review/Reactive attachment disorder/archive1

Reactive attachment disorder

I've listed this article for peer review because...

It has just achieved GA status. The GA editor very helpfully showed us how to complete a seperate notes/refs style citation system to deal with multiple citations from the same source. I have subsequently checked and copy-edited as much as I am able and can't myself think of any further improvements.

On the points previously raised about images and bullet points, I can't think of an appropriate image to demonstrate a behavioural disorder of childhood! The bullet points mark out the points of the 'official' diagnostic criteria for RAD. I can easily remove these if required but I do not think that would assist clarity.

I would like this article to achieve FA status if at all possible.

Many thanks! Fainites ^barley 20:08, 22 December 2007 (UTC)

This peer review discussion has been closed.

• Image now found. Fainites ^barley 22:04, 22 December 2007 (UTC)
• Well-researched and informative, covers the relevant content neutrally. Some points though: (1) Not all text has a clear reference, e.g. parts of the "theoretical framework" paragraph. (2) There are some instances of boldface and Capitals that don't follow the MOS. (3) The article does not follow WP:MEDMOS, which is the general outline for "somatic" medical articles. JFW | T@lk 13:35, 24 December 2007 (UTC)

• I see quite a few issues that will need to be addressed before approaching WP:FAC, but I won't be able to do an in-depth review until after Christmas. Please ping me if you haven't heard back from me by the 28th. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 14:50, 24 December 2007 (UTC)

Thanks. Fainites ^barley 21:14, 24 December 2007 (UTC)

• Refs added to theoretical framework section etc.
• Boldfaces and caps removed
• Sections rearranged. Fainites ^barley 15:16, 28 December 2007 (UTC)

From SandyGeorgia

I'm sorry for the delay, Fainites. You have quite an excellent start here, but I'm going to suggest a lot of things to work on, and also recommend that before you approach WP:FAC, you also try to get a review by either Colin (talk · contribs), Fvasconcellos (talk · contribs) or Eubulides (talk · contribs). After you've addressed my list, one of them may be able to help you in the final tweaking. I don't recommend coming to FAC until you're sure the article is ready, as that can lead to working under pressure.

I see the sections mostly comply with WP:MEDMOS now; be sure to have a look at the suggested section headings in MEDMOS in terms of what you haven't covered. Anything missing suggests the article either isn't comprehensive or may need different organization.

On a quick glance, I saw British spelling; be sure that is consistent throughout.

I see WP:MOSNUM issues in the lead; numbers less than 10 are spelled out. Be sure to review WP:MOSNUM.

Be sure to define acronyms on their first occurrence (DSM, ICD); see autism, Asperger syndrome or Tourette syndrome. I know what DSM-IV-TR is, but the article never says (I think you can find wording at Tourette syndrome).

Have a look at the redundancy reducing exercises on the user page of Tony1 (talk · contribs). For example:

• There is a variety of mainstream treatment and prevention programmes targeting both reactive attachment disorder ...

could be:

• Mainstream treatment and prevention programmes target both reactive attachment disorder ...

Be sure to review your wikilinking and WP:OVERLINKing; all technical terms should be defined on first occurrence, don't need to be linked on every occurrence, and common terms known to most English speakers need not be linked.

DSM is very picky about copyright; have you paraphrased?

The lists in the Classification section have inconsistent capitalization.

Ideally, the See also section is minimized in an FA-quality article. Items should be worked into the text if relevant, and need not be repeated in See also if they're already in the text.

See WP:DASH regarding the use of endashes on page ranges in the footnotes. You can ask Brighterorange (talk · contribs) to run a script to change your hyphens to endashes.

Before your actual content is even ready for close scrutiny, the next step is make sure you have all the MEDMOS sections, and beef up the sourcing. There seems to be a heavy reliance on books; are those the highest-quality sources available, or can you cite more referreed, peer-reviewed, high-quality journal-published reviews? Or actually, maybe those aren't book sources, you've just used a book sourcing format? Have a look at the three articles I indicated above for how to organize footnotes and use named refs. Also, pls see the user box on my talk page, where you will find a Diberri PMID template filler that will automatically generate correct citations from the PMID. I will do one for you as a sample.[1]

For now, I recommend you peruse autism, Asperger syndrome and Tourette syndrome, try to beef up the MOS issues, citations and content sections per MEDMOS, and then after doing that work, contact the editors above or me for further review of the actual content. You have an excellent start, but the devil is in the details at FAC, so you have to get all these little pieces in place, and get an independent copyedit and review before approaching FAC. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 04:45, 30 December 2007 (UTC)

Italics are used a lot, a bit too often in my opinion. --WS (talk) 00:56, 31 December 2007 (UTC)

Alright. Will do. Fainites ^barley 15:50, 1 January 2008 (UTC)

New notes

• Inconsistent formatting of page numbers in citations:

• (p.) ^ Prior & Glaser 2006, p. 218–219
• (pps) ^ a b Zeanah CH and Smyke AT (2005) "Building Attachment Relationships Following Maltreatment and Severe Deprivation" In Berlin LJ, Ziv Y, Amaya-Jackson L and Greenberg MT (Eds) Enhancing Early Attachments; Theory, research, intervention, and policy The Guilford Press, 2005 pps 195–216 ISBN 1593854706 (pbk)
• (p) ^ Prior & Glaser (2006) p 231
• (p missing a space) ^ Mercer(2006) p116

I suggest you switch all to p. for single page numbers, and pp. for multiple pages. Whatever is done, it should be consistent. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 03:25, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Done Fainites ^barley 21:59, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Inconsistent year formatting in citations:

• (year with no parens) ^ Prior & Glaser 2006, p. 228
• (year with parens) ^ Mercer(2006) p116

SandyGeorgia (Talk) 03:32, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

Done.Fainites ^barley 21:59, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

Review the use of the main template; it is only used when *this* article is a summary of another article, using WP:SS. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 03:37, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

• A script has been used to generate a semi-automated review of the article for issues relating to grammar and house style. If you would find such a review helpful, please click here. Ruhrfisch _><>°^° 05:00, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Progress report

• PMIDs done where available. Some aren't - notably Infant Mental Health. Where not available doi's and links have been provided if poss.
• more peer-reviewed sources for info. rather than other works.
• ISBN's for books. (Several important papers are published in book form).
• sections rearranged more in line with WP:MEDMOS. Theoretical framework section retained for basic grasp of attachment theory necessary to understand RAD.
• Prognosis section added - such as there is a prognosis which is not much.
• Mechanism section is work in progress - but may be too speculative.
• defined acronyms on first appearance.
• Reduce links overall and reduce multiple linking of same word.
• reduce See Also to articles not linked in text.
• endash's done.
• remove unecessary capitalisation.
• Americanize zpellingz (article started in American)
• Numbers below 10 written out.
• reduce italics.

Fainites ^barley 21:35, 5 January 2008 (UTC)

Mechanism section done - one more ref required. Impact section done. Fainites ^barley 23:33, 13 January 2008 (UTC)

Epidemiology

Here is a brief review of Reactive attachment disorder #Epidemiology. I am reviewing this version.

• I found it difficult to follow the citations. Please use the style of Tourette syndrome or Autism. The style used here makes it hard to review the article.
• The first sentence is incoherent. It says RAD is "very uncommon" and then says its prevalence among foster care adoptees is 10%. 10% is not "very uncommon". This point needs to be clarified.
• Every direct quote needs a citation; "Very common" "very uncommon" is a quote but is not cited.
• That "10%" figure is supported by a citation (Boris et al 1998) which is not about prevalence and does not say "10%". Please supply a citation for the 10% figure.
• Please avoid phrases like "There has been considerable recent research". This article is supposed to be about RAD, not about researchers.
• The phrase "As a cluster of distinctive symptoms defined under DSM and ICD it is rare" is supported by a citation (Zilberstein 2006) that does not say that it is rare as a cluster.
• The phrase "occurs in high risk populations" is (1) a tautology, and (2) does not appear in the cited source (Zilberstein 2006). Please remove it.
• The citation to Zilberstein 2006 contains a URL, but that is not a freely readable source. Please include URLs only for freely readable sources. Other sources will have to content themselves with PMID and DOI references.

That's the first paragraph. More later as I find the time. Eubulides (talk) 02:25, 17 January 2008 (UTC)

• Sorry about the Boris. My mistake. It used to say 10 to 80% and cite Boris and Cicchetti respectively. I removed the Cicchetti and the 80% but forgot to check the Boris.
• Altered first sentences. (The point about recent research is that its only because of the East European orphanages that they were able to really 'up' the research on RAD and find out alot more about it. This needs to be reflected somewhere I think). Fainites ^barley 16:00, 17 January 2008 (UTC)

OK, thanks, it's getting better; I struck out items you fixed. Now, reviewing this newer version of "Epidemiology":

• "There are no precise statistics on prevalence." This sentence can be removed, as it (weakly) repeats the first phrase in the previous sentence.
• Need to remove phrases like the following, as the article should focus on RAD not RAD researchers/taskforces (these details can be in the citations):
  • "According to the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children (APSAC) Taskforce Report (2006), some have suggested that"
  • "The Taskforce did not agree with this view,"
  • "The Taskforce states"
• WP:MEDMOS#Audience suggests that the article should not be a how-to and should not contain advice to healthcare professionals or to patients. In support of this goal, please remove/rewrite all "should" phrases, such as:
  • "it should not be assumed that"
  • "should not serve as a benchmark"
  • "there should be no automatic diagnosis"
• Please avoid "and/or"; either use "and", or use "or", or rewrite.
• "Whilst" is a Britishism; replace with "Although".
• "disorganized attachment. Attachment disorganization" is repetitive; rewrite to avoid the repetition.
• The following discussion belongs under "Diagnosis", not "Epidemiology":
  • "Whilst RAD is likely to occur in relation to neglectful and abusive childcare, there should be no automatic diagnosis on this basis alone as children can form stable attachments and social relationships despite marked abuse and neglect."
  • "There is a lack of clarity about the presentation of attachment disorders over the age of five years and difficulty in distinguishing between aspects of attachment disorders, disorganized attachment or the sequalae of maltreatment."
• The following discussion belongs under "Causes", not "Epidemiology":
  • "Abuse can occur alongside the required factors, but on its own does not explain attachment disorder. It is associated with developed, albeit disorganized attachment."
  • "There is as yet no explanation for why similar aberrant parenting produces two distinct forms of the disorder. The issue of temperament and its influence on the development of attachment disorders has yet to be resolved."
• The following discussion belongs under "Classification", not "Epidemiology":
  • "it is not in itself considered an attachment disorder under the current classification. However, some authors consider there to be a significant overlap between behaviors of the inhibited form of RAD or DAD and aspects of disorganized attachment where there is an identified attachment figure. This is the form that tends to resolve once children have appropriate family based care although the indiscriminate form is more enduring. The question of whether there are in fact two subtypes has been raised."
• Once the above stuff is removed you'll have a much smaller section, and can think about organizing it. Here's one possible organization: it's a bit idealized but ideally there would be data (or a brief statement saying "we have no data") for each of these topics:
  • frequency (prevalence or incidence or both)
  • whether frequency is increasing with time
  • risk factors
  • associated (comorbid) conditions

Eubulides (talk) 21:08, 17 January 2008 (UTC)

Jean, with all this shifting around there's a sentence left orphaned in the middle of diagnosis and I can't at the moment remember where it came from. Can you? Its:

• "Whilst RAD is likely to occur in relation to neglectful and abusive childcare, there should be no automatic diagnosis on this basis alone as children can form stable attachments and social relationships despite marked abuse and neglect"Fainites ^barley 00:27, 18 January 2008 (UTC)

This is not a direct quote as far as I know. A source for the information would be

Rutter, M. (2002). Nature, nurture, and development: From evangelism through science toward policy and practice. Child Development, Vol. 73, 1-21.71.125.140.44 (talk) 14:04, 18 January 2008 (UTC)Jean Mercer (talk) 14:12, 18 January 2008 (UTC)

Ta. Fainites ^barley 22:18, 18 January 2008 (UTC)

It's improving but still needs organization as suggested above. I crossed out a bunch of items above, and have the following new items:

• "it has been suggested by attachment therapists that" should be removed/rewritten, under the usual rule that this is an article about RAD, not about therapists or researchers.

The point here is that there are two definitions of RAD. The unvalidated non-mainstream one is from attachment therapy. It is they who promulgate the notion that RAD is common and who conflate it with disorganized attachment, maltreatment and adoption. (80% is a favoured statistic). This is what the Taskforce is responding to. Therefore it needs to be said who says its prevalence can be ascertained by reference to statistics on child maltreatment. How do you suggest we word this? Fainites ^barley 21:29, 18 January 2008 (UTC)

Thanks for explaining. I didn't understand that, since I read only "Epidemiology" and didn't know about the two definitions or the controversy. It's not necessary to go at length into this topic here (it belongs under "Classification") but perhaps a brief allousion to the problem would help here, for other readers (like me) who read just "Epidemiology". At this point I'd rather keep the role of a reader reporting the problems being run into, and so I'll leave the wording changes up to you. Eubulides (talk) 23:47, 18 January 2008 (UTC)

I've changed it back to 'some' for the moment. Currently the attachment therapy bits are in Diagnosis and treatment. Fainites ^barley 23:54, 18 January 2008 (UTC)

• Please rewrite to avoid the need for parentheses, in the last paragraph.
• The first two sentences of "Epidemiology" are the only ones that says "here's something we know". The remaining sentences all talk about things that we don't know. It should be stated more clearly that the epidemiology is largely unknown (you can cite Hanson & Spratt 2000 for this), as an introduction to those remaining sentences.
• I don't know of any good recent survey of RAD, so you probably have to fall back on primary sources. Here are some that you might want to consult re the prevalence of RAD. No doubt there are others.
  • Millward et al. 2006 doi:10.1080/13632750601022212
  • Skovgaard et al. 2007 doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.2006.01659.x
  • Al-Jawadi & Abdul-Rhman 2007 doi:10.1186/1471-2458-7-274

Eubulides (talk) 20:45, 18 January 2008 (UTC)

There aren't any good surveys of RAD. The orphanage ones are in high risk populations. There's only one or two I think on maltreated children and those are in. I think the Glasgow one and the Copenhagen ones can go in. Will do. Al-Lawadi doesn't deal with RAD though.Fainites ^barley 18:10, 19 January 2008 (UTC)

The Millward one seems to have used a rather odd method of ascertaining RAD. Fainites ^barley 00:29, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

There has been no real attempt to validate the questionnaire used by Milward et al against any known way of diagnosing RAD.Jean Mercer (talk) 17:10, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

I think all these suggestions have been carried out apart from deciding whether or not Millward goes in. Fainites ^barley 21:14, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

The changes to "Epidemiology" look good to me. I cleaned up a few minor things. I still would like a citation for the "very uncommon" quote. (I see I misquoted the quotation! I fixed that above.) I haven't had a chance to review the rest of the article though. Eubulides (talk) 22:50, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

I think its from DSM - but my relevent books gone missing. Damn. Fainites ^barley 23:49, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

The Taskforce says its from the DSM. They should know. Some of them wrote the thing. Could you check it please Jean? Fainites ^barley 00:16, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

Thanks Jean. Fainites ^barley 18:59, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

Colin

I've reviewed the Lead section at this version. Please note that I haven't yet read the body of the article, so some of my comments may reflect that (but also the lead is meant to stand alone, so I wanted to test that). I know nothing about the subject.

Lead

• Should "(also known as "RAD")" be "(commonly abbreviated to RAD)" per WP:LEAD?
• Defining RAD in terms of its ICD and DSM codes seems odd. The average reader will have no ideal what these codes are, or that there's a big collection of "diagnostic entities" somewhere. We don't do this for any other medical disorders or diseases I've seen, and seems a bit like defining something by its page and paragraph number in the Oxford English Dictionary. I suggest you elide the text between "which are" and "characterized by" to form a definition in the first sentence that the reader can grasp. The relevance of the ICD/DSM definitions is covered later, and I think doesn't need to be in the lead. (Note: if you do this, you'll need to expand "DSM" in the third paragraph).
• "It should not be confused with" and "RAD should also be differentiated from". Don't instruct the reader what they should or shouldn't do. You need to explain to the reader what the difference is between RAD and those other disorders or milder behaviours. Saying "don't confuse them" is neither appropriate or helpful. If explaining the difference is difficult to achieve with brevity, then merely stating that RAD is differentiated from XYZ may be enough (if this is true, and that RAD isn't a comorbid condition to those)
• Overlinking: both attachment theory and attachment disorder are linked twice and three times, respectively, in the lead.
• I suspect "care giving" should be one word.
• I see you are working on changing the way the Notes/Refs work. If you want me to check the ref formatting/style, let me know when you have finished. BTW: We normally only link the article title URL if the article is free online. If you have to pay or subscribe to view the full article, then the PMID or DOI is sufficient. I encourage you to add as many links to free text as you can. If you link to a PDF, please indicate this in parenthesis after the title, or use the "format=PDF" parameter in "cite journal". I know there is a PDF URL icon, but not all browsers show this, and many people like to be warned that Acrobat is about to crash their PC.
• "studied only recently" see WP:DATED. If studies only started in earnest in the late 1990s (say) then say that.
• "Important modifications have been made, but the core remains the same." this statement isn't helpful without context and additional information. I think you are saying that the DSM definition has changed since 1980. Unless the "important" changes can be summarised in the lead, is there any point to mentioning this here?
• The ICD/DSM differences aren't that relevant to the reader unless there is significant result from this (for example, clinicians using different diagnostic criteria result in markedly different patterns of diagnosis/treatment -- that would be the interesting point, not that the wording is different). I would have thought there are plenty diagnostic differences between ICD and DSM, so is RAD special in this regard?
• "under constant review in this somewhat controversial area". All ICD/DSM definitions are under constant review, no? Plenty diagnoses in this field are controversial. I can't see what is special about this disorder (which I emphasise, I know nothing about).
• "There has been considerable recent research" is passive and also trips up on WP:DATE.
• The East European orphanage story sticks out a little. It isn't covered in the body (just mentioned briefly). Why is this singled-out for the lead? Are you trying to say that those conditions provided a fertile ground for research, or that children in those institutions often had RAD (which should noted in the Epidemiology section, if true).
• Why is "new areas" linked to attachment disorder? Try to avoid non-obvious wikilinks.
• "Such research has broadened the understanding of disorders of attachment, and findings have opened up new areas for research." I'm not clear how the understanding has "broadened" rather than "deepened" or just generally "improved" (which all research strives to achieve). And "new areas for research" open up all the time in any active research topic. Such text isn't really saying a lot that is specific to this disorder.

They now know the definition's in DSM and ICD are too narrow. Ths really is not a well researched area but its gathering apace very recently - kick started by the east european stuff as far as one can tell. Fainites ^barley 21:20, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

• "Leading theorists in the field have proposed that a broader range of conditions arising from problems with attachment should be defined." Without knowing that the range was apparently narrow, the reader can't appreciate why anyone would want to broaden it. Is this a statement about "attachment disorders" in general, or specific to RAD? If the former, how does it belong here? Some may complain about your use of "leading", which implies some theorists are more important than others, and of the vagueness of this grouping. The citation you give (to a whole special issue of a journal) is nearly five years old. So has their "proposal" been adopted or fallen on deaf ears?

(There is no 'official' definition of the term 'attachment disorder' other than RAD in ICD and DSM. Both RAD and attachment disorder are much misused and abused terms therefore care needs to be taken with their use.

Its probably too complicated to describe the broader range of conditions proposed in the lead - bearing in mind that most readers won't know what attachment is either.

I see what you mean about 'leading'. The trouble is there are two different versions of all this. One mainstream, the other fringe (attachment therapy). They haven't finished all the research yet by a long chalk but there may well be some changes in the next versions of ICD and DSM. The cite is to the proposal. There is more recent research/ work on it set out in the article. (To give you an idea, up to 2005 there were 10 studies on the incidence of RAD, 2 of which were follow ups)Fainites ^barley 22:54, 18 January 2008 (UTC)))

• The last paragraph doesn't really tell me what (some of) the treatments or preventative measures are. If I drop off the specifics, you get "treatment and prevention programmes target the disorder and its potential early signs" That's almost a tautology. I'd also like to know if treatment/prevention is effective.
• I'm concerned that the lead isn't an adequate summary of the article, but has been written as an introduction to the topic. It needs to be both, per WP:LEAD. (Note: I haven't read the rest of the article yet, this is just a hunch). Examine each section to see if the the important aspects have been summarised in the lead.

If this is helpful, I'll try to find time to look at some more later. Colin°^Talk 13:48, 18 January 2008 (UTC)

Thanks Colin. Fainites ^barley 23:56, 18 January 2008 (UTC)

I think this has all been dealt with.Fainites ^barley 21:20, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

Theoretical framework

At this version.

• "RAD arises from a failure to.." This paragraph is a duplicate of the lead. Coming so soon after the lead, I'm not sure you'll get away with it. Does this section need this paragraph in this section at all, since the subsequent paragraph does the job of explaining the theory. BTW: "would result" seems a little strong. How about "may result"?
• attachment theory is wikilinked twice; three times if you count the header link.
• You list "Bowlby, Ainsworth and Spitz" in medical journal style, as though the reader will have heard of these great figures (like Freud or Darwin). Ainsworth is only linked to a DAB page. I've guessed who Spitz is, with a bit of Googling. It would be better for the general reader if the text was "John Bowlby, Mary Ainsworth and René Spitz".
• "evolutionary theory" links to adaptation, which isn't a particularly useful link. How about evolutionary psychology?
• I'm not sure "behaviors" need linking, but human behavior might be a better link if you do.
• You've linked "attached" to attachment in children (and later "attachment 'styles'" similarly), which is also noted after the header. This arbitrary linking of some form of "attach*" to one of the various attachment articles isn't a good idea. The reader will quickly tire of seeing "attach*" in blue and not guess that one might lead to a different article. If you do want to link here, try "Infants become attached to adults".

Arbitrary forsooth! In fact its a cunning plan. Attachment theory is attachment theory. The theoretical basis. However, attachment in children gives a much fuller description of childrens attachment styles. I'll try and rationalise it a bit.Fainites ^barley 23:58, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

• "Treatment" links to a DAB page; therapy would be better. "Clinical" also links to a DAB; clinical medicine (which redirects to medicine) would be better as you are using clinical in the same sense as medical.
• I wonder if this last paragraph fits better into the Classification/characteristics section.

I suggest you double-check all your wikilinks to see if they are the most appropriate and necessary. WP:POPUPS is a great help for casually inspecting a wikilink. Colin°^Talk 12:58, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

OK. All done I think. Fainites ^barley 22:23, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

Classification and characteristics

I found this section quite hard to read, as there's a lot of terminology that you guys will be familiar with but the general reader is having to pick up.

• Your bullet-point lists need some copyediting. I'm not an expert here but there's inconsistency in format between the bullets.

Sorry - I can't see this!!! Fainites ^barley 22:14, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

• In the first bullet-point list, you have "Requires a ..." but all the others are requirements too. I didn't understand what was "Implicit" about the lack of an "identifiable, preferred attachment figure".

Its tricky. They assume if you fulfil the criteria for RAD, then you can't have had an "identifiable, preferred attachment figure". Its circular I know - but then hey - I didn't write the criteria. Fainites ^barley 22:06, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

• I assume the first DSM bullet-point is a full quotation, so should have a close " at the end?
• "More recent research". WP:DATED. There are two more "recent"s in the article.
• I'm not sure, but I wonder if it is possible to keep this section as a definition of the current state of official RAD classification and perhaps move the issues and suggested changes to another section on future directions or whatever. There is a real danger that the new reader will come away from reading this not knowing what is and isn't part of the current definition of RAD.

I agree. What to call it? Developments? Proposed changes? Fainites ^barley 22:14, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

Thought: the wording of this section title may be less critical if it is just a subsection. Colin°^Talk 15:37, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

• "In particular, Zeanah and Boris, building on the earlier work of Leiberman" this is medical-journal-speak. Who are these guys and why are you telling me what they think? Either introduce them like a newspaper would, "Two researchers from the Tulane University School of Medicine, Neil Boris and Charles Zeanah...", or perhaps try to rephrase without mentioning them. Eubulides may be able to help with phrasing here as Autism and related articles largely avoid mentioning names, and have their fair share of controversies. It can be difficult not to fall into the opposite trap of the weasel words "some authors" (which is a phrase you use).

I've removed the names. The "some authors" is tricky. "two authors" sounds weird. Fainites ^barley 23:24, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

• In the last sentence, did you mean "indiscriminate form" or "disinhibited form"? If the latter, you are repeating the "is more enduring" phrase, if not them I'm confused as to which form is which.

I've removed it as it was repetition. Fainites ^barley 22:14, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

Mechanism

• "The mechanism by which reactive attachment disorder develops remains a matter for speculation. It may be that the absence of events thought to be needed for the functioning of typical developmental changes in attachment is a part of the mechanism producing reactive attachment disorder." is typical of prose that needs to be condensed.
• Numbers less than 10 should be spelled out.
• "Zeanah et al posit that " more medical-journal speak. Also, you don't cite this paper here. It is quite acceptable (even preferred) to cite a review discussing "Zeanah et al, but the reader may still want to know which study you are referring to. How about citing it just after "twin study,"?

I've removed the names. this passageis from the twin study.Fainites ^barley 00:18, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

Diagnosis

• "RAD is one of the least researched and most poorly understood disorders in the DSM." Such a bold statement requires a source. Perhaps one of the cluster at the end of the paragraph confirms this, but if so, could you copy/move it to this sentence.

I've moved the Taskforde cite to the first two as it covers both. Is that OK? The Taskforce amalgamates Hanson/Wilson and themselves.Fainites ^barley 22:28, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

• "Whilst" is fine in British English but the other lot seem to dislike it.
• "is a must" and "there should be" are instructing the reader in how (or how not) to diagnose RAD. This is not an instruction manual.
• This section is quite critical of attachment therapists. Perhaps that's justified but as an outsider, I'm initially confused that any therapist seeking to help someone with an attachment disorder might be considered non-mainstream. It looks like the apparently generic "attachment therapist" label is used to describe a restricted set of alternative practitioners. This needs to be explained.

See Attachment therapy. I've put stuff under diagnosis and treatment and could add bits to theoretical framework and classification, but do you think it would be better to put it all in a seperate paragraph? Fainites ^barley 22:15, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

That's all for tonight. The prose could do with a bit of copyediting prior to FAC. Removing some of the wordiness will tighten the article. This is a difficult subject. Quite a challenge you've taken on! Colin°^Talk 21:53, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

I can't think what possessed me. Fainites ^barley 21:38, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

Epidemiology

• "According to DSM-IV, RAD is presumed to be "very uncommon"" I'm looking at the BehaveNet clinical capsule copy of DSM-IV-TR, and don't see those words. Is this just a subset of what the DSM says? BTW: other WP articles use BehaveNet as a convenience link for DSM material. Your citation for this statement is just "DSM-IV American Psychiatric Association 1994" which is not specific enough (page or section numbers, please).

This is being checked. The Taskforce quote it from DSM 1994. Fainites ^barley 20:48, 29 January 2008 (UTC)

Thanks Jean. It was DSM-IV-TR after all.p29. Perhaps it doesn't appear on online versions that are free. 09:41, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

• I see Eubulides has reviewed this section thoroughly.

Treatment

• "AACAP has laid down guidelines" Could this be "In 2005, the AACAP laid down guidelines" just so readers know how recent/otherwise these are.
• Review your links for the various Attachment therapy links. Most of these are redirects to AT (which is OK, as I suppose someone might eventually write an article on that technique). The exceptions are rebirthing (which is a DAB) and Evergreen model, which is a direct link. Change rebirthing to the appropriate link (a redirect) and consider making a redirect for Evergreen model, or else dropping the link.

OK on the Evergreen. Bit tricky with the rebirthing. There's a form of therapy called rebirthing who were very upset to be confused with the candace newmaker type scenario. They now call themselves Rebirthing-Breathwork but I don't know if everybody knows this and someone looking up rebirthing might be a bit puzzled to find themselves on the AT page. I have put into the AT intro that its not the same - but its still not ideal. Fainites ^barley 14:56, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

• "Regression" is a DAB link.

It didn't used to be. they've changed it. Also its wrong. Fainites ^barley 15:04, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

• AACAP should be spelled out in full or else include the abbreviation in parenthesis after the full version in the section above.

Colin°^Talk 13:58, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

Prognosis and impact

• "However, the course " Why "However"? How does that contradict the previous sentence?
• "PSTD" the expansion of this acronym may not be remembered by readers from two sections ago.
• There are two large paragraphs on a case study of only a set of twins. If this is the best source for a discussion on "prognosis" then the subject really does lack research. I think this is way too long and too detailed on just two individuals. Do the papers draw some general conclusions you can use, rather than spelling out the specifics of each case? Or are there reviews that cite these papers and provide a quick summary and opinion on what they say?

Yes it really really does lack research. They must have thought it was Christmas when those twins came along. I agree about the details but the trouble is - the paper doesn't really come to any sort of neatly encapsulated conclusion. i'll havea bash at it though. Fainites ^barley 01:20, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

• I don't know what "self-monitoring" is.

It means regulating your behavior in order to create a favourable, but false impression. Not something Wiki editors ever do. Fainites ^barley 22:55, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

East European orphanages and maltreated children

• Each paragraph here documents a separate study and the section lacks cohesion. The first handful cite studies in Romanian orphans and the latter on maltreated US children. There isn't really much in common between them other than that they are studies on children and RAD. Unless the studies are themselves notable, the general reader is less interested in particular studies, and more in what we learned from them. For that purpose, it isn't even necessary to separate the conclusions of each study, unless they contradict or whatever in an interesting way. So I think this section needs a rethink as it is a bit of a miscellaneous bag. Can you extract the studies' conclusions and move the details to the relevant sections?

They're sort of notable because they're most of the only ones there are really. Unfortunately mostly what they learn from them is that they need to do alot more research. I'll try and make it a more coherent whole or abandon it altogether. Fainites ^barley 14:35, 2 February 2008 (UTC)

I've reduced the material and distributed it between epidemiology and prognosis and then removed the seperate research section altogether.Fainites ^barley 22:23, 3 February 2008 (UTC)

• "DAI" should be spelled out the first time it is mentioned in this section as it was previously spelled out much further up the article and is an unfamiliar acronym.

Whew! Reached the end of the text. I see Sandy's examining the refs, which is her speciality. If you can find a pair of fresh eyes for copyediting the prose, that would be a good final step before FAC. Colin°^Talk 13:36, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

delldot

Just a quick note for now: I noticed it's written in pretty technical language (e.g. I'm not sure your average reader will know what "problematic sequalae" are, from the lead). Maybe you could explain some of the more obscure terms, or give concrete examples? Also, The refs aren't all formatted the same way (e.g. some of the links are at the end of the ref, some link the title of the article). Maybe I'm just being way too picky about that though ;) If you do go through and format them all the same, you might want to do it so it's consistent with the way the {{cite journal}} template does it, so it'll be easy for others to add more in the same style later. Great work so far! delldot talk 07:20, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

{{cite journal}} is already used, but not for every journal ref. Since cj has its own ref formatting style, which is different to any other established style, I suggest you pick one or the other, but not both. If you dislike the templates, then may I suggest the Vancouver style (see also this guide) which is the same format that PubMed use in their results lists. You seem to have eleven raw URLs to abstracts. If you can't find a PMID for those papers, a DOI would do. Colin°^Talk 07:31, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

I used Diberris tool on SandyGeorgia's advice. [2] It only works for articles in PubMed and theres a few that aren't. Does that mean I have to type them out by hand to make them match? I also asked diberris tool to add URL if available as that gives a link to the abstract. I understand one doesn't link unless its to the whole text. is that right?Fainites ^barley 17:08, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

I haven't used the URL feature of Diberri's tool (which was only added recently). I can't see how a piece of software can tell the difference between a URL to a free or costly journal article. Also, some articles have two links, particularly if the article is free at the publisher's site and also at PubMedCentral. Finally, you often have the choice to link to either a PDF version or an HTML version. The former is probably closer to the original, but the latter often has better hyperlinking of its references. So I still prefer to locate and choose the URL myself. If your journal isn't on Pubmed, you can still use {{cite journal}} and supply the fields by hand. This will ensure the author/year/title/publisher/etc fields are in the same order and style as the other journal refs. You should be able to find a DOI on the publisher's web site, if the article is online at all. This is preferable to those raw URLs. If you really can't find either a DOI or a PMID, but you do have a URL to an abstract, then format the URL link with some text, e.g. (abstract). Colin°^Talk 17:48, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

I've found PMIDs for those that have them and doi's for those that don't. The remaining few have neither. I'll format them first then sort the urls. Fainites ^barley 23:57, 21 January 2008 (UTC)

I've removed all the URLs for the ones that only linked to abstracts or the journal for purchase. That leaves either PMIDs using diberis tool or doi's in the {{cite journal}} format for the others. The books all have ISBN's. There's very little free content I'm afraid.Fainites ^barley 21:18, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

Here's a bit more:

• I think this sentence is redundant: "RAD is distinct from the less than ideal attachment 'styles' or attachment difficulties such as insecure or disorganized attachment which may have problematic consequences but are not within the clinical disorder defined as RAD." - it's distinct from styles that are not within the clinical disorder?

There is a significant problem in the field with 'therapists' mixing up attachment styles and attachment disorder. There is an entire 'cottage industry' (Zeanah) built on a complete misrepresentation of attachment disorder. It is necessary to distinguish between attachment styles which are attachments and RAD which essentially is not. I've removed the tautology though. What do you think?Fainites ^barley 22:20, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, it looks fine now, I was just talking about the wording. delldot talk 16:29, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

• I think maybe some examples would be useful, since it's sort of abstract and hard for the unfamiliar reader to understand. You could give examples of what a caregiver might do to bring this on, or examples of how a child might behave.
• How does RAD relate to secure, anxious-ambivalent, anxious-avoidant, and disorganized attachment 'styles'? Is it one of them, or can a child with RAD have any one or one of a few of these styles?

See answer to your first point above. The styles are all attachments - some of which are less desirable that others. RAD is when the basic elements of attachment are missing. Fainites ^barley 22:20, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

Got it. delldot talk 16:29, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

• You may want to define "frozen watchfulness", though maybe your reader can guess what it means.
• I'm not sure about this, but I think "family based care" should be "family-based care," because when you use two words as an adjective to modify one noun, you use a hyphen. Correct me if I'm wrong, or if this case is an exception.

You're undoubtedly right - but where does it say family based care? Fainites ^barley 22:35, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

I could tell you, but once I found it again I just changed it myself. I hope family-based is the way it's usually used in the profession. delldot talk 16:29, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

• I think you're supposed to spell out integers from 1-10.

The only ones that i can find left that aren't spelt out are percentages, in close proximity to larger percentages. I think these ought to have there own internal consistency really.Fainites ^barley 21:28, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

• That is not correct, spell out 1 to 9. See WP:MOSNUM. SandyGeorgia (Talk) 03:40, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

• My bad. delldot on a public computer talk 05:57, 1 February 2008 (UTC)

• I think some material is unnecessarily repetitive. For example, under Mechanism, it's got "An infant who has many changes of caregiver, or who is cared for by an insensitive or unresponsive adult, may have few experiences that encourage the seeking of proximity to a familiar person. An infant who experiences fear but who cannot find comforting information in an adult's face and voice may develop atypical ways of coping with fearfulness. These could involve either the maintenance of distance from adults, or the seeking of proximity to all adults, no matter what their familiarity or responsiveness." This seems more introductory than necessary to me, though there is something to be said for recapping for folks who are only reading one section.
• "human actions such as facial expressions" sounds awkward, because facial expressions aren't really actions.

More to follow if you want. delldot talk 19:58, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

OK. Fainites ^barley 22:42, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

Actually, facial expressions are actions in the same sense that speech is an action or hand gestures or posture changes are actions. They involve movement of body parts, are discernible by observers, and function to convey information, potentially changing the behavior of observers. All of these communicative acts influence attachment behavior, but the list seemed long, so I chose the obvious example of facial expression.Jean Mercer (talk) 00:09, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

Yeah, I guess you're right. Just sounded weird to me. I think that you're right that facial expression is the best example to use, everything else is more complicated or less straightforward. delldot talk 16:29, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

Jean is right - but I tried changing it to behavior. What do you think? Fainites ^barley 20:40, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

Behavior sounds equally weird to me, but it's seriously not a big deal. You should leave it as the most accurate thing. delldot talk 20:51, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

OK. Actions it is. Fainites ^barley 21:14, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

The problem is - it was suggested a section on mechanism would be a Good Thing, but there isn't any research on mechanism - just presumptions based on an understanding of attachment theory. For example, DSM presumes the cause. The other alternative would be to leave out mechanism altogether on the grounds that its all speculation. Intelligent, informed speculation, but still speculation. Fainites ^barley 21:54, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

Mechanism's such an integral part, I'd say keep it. Just give the facts: If there's no no research, find a review article or something saying so and cite that.

Rereading the mechanism section, I think it should be clearer how much support each theory has. For example, the Theory of Mind paragraph says, "the development of Theory of Mind may play a role in emotional development." Saying it 'may' doesn't give us much info - how much support does it have? You might be able to say a theory is 'widely accepted,' though some might consider that weasel wording ;-) delldot talk 16:56, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

I don't know how much support its got. Its from JeanMercers book so it has her support. Then Fonagy himself is notable I think. Maybe Jean can help more on this point. Fainites ^barley 22:11, 31 January 2008 (UTC)

More:

• Why are 8 months, etc. not written out? e.g. under Reactive attachment disorder#Mechanism
• Under Reactive attachment disorder#Mechanism, what is “re-regulation”?
• I found several cases of redundant and repetitive wording, e.g. where the same word was used twice in quick succession. e.g. under Reactive attachment disorder#Diagnosis, the word disorder is repeated very often, maybe another word can be substituted for some of them. You might want to give the article a rereading looking specifically for places where the wording can be tightened up.
• There are a lot of really long sentences, and it's already a pretty tough topic for the layperson to grasp. Check this one out: "There is an emphasis within attachment therapy on aggressive behavior as a symptom of attachment disorder whereas mainstream theorists view these behaviors as comorbid, externalizing behaviors requiring appropriate assessment and treatment rather than attachment disorders, although knowledge of attachment relationships can contribute to the etiology, maintenance and treatment of externalizing disorders." I bet chopping up some long sentences could make it easier to read and understand.
• Per WP:DATED, articles shouldn't say "a recent study" (under Reactive attachment disorder#Diagnosis). Better would be "a 2002 study."
• I could be wrong, but I don't think you're supposed to start a sentence out with a numeral, e.g. "35% were identified as having ICD RAD..." under Reactive attachment disorder#Epidemiology. I think you're supposed to reword it so the numeral doesn't come first. Here, maybe a quick fix would be "Some 35%...", since they probably didn't find 35.000% anyway. But I'm not sure if that would work with the other percentages in the sentence - would the reader be able to assume that it's some for them too?
• "...concentrate on increasing the responsiveness and sensitivity of the caregiver, or if that is not possible, changing the caregiver." Repeats 'caregiver' twice. Also, "changing the caregiver" could be ambiguous. I assume it means finding a new caregiver? It could be interpreted as making the person change.
• What are 'adjunctive treatments'? (Reactive attachment disorder#Treatment)
• I don't like the slash in the header Prognosis/impact. Maybe "Prognosis and impact"?
• I got rid of some 'In additions' and other additive words per advice I recently read at User:Tony1/How to satisfy Criterion 1a#Eliminating redundancy. There might be more.
• Under Reactive attachment disorder#Prognosis/impact, "Possible gender differences noted in earlier research were highlighted, with the female infant being more prone to dissociative behaviors and the male infant more prone to aggressive behaviors, though both food-stuffed and hoarded" should probably be turned into two sentences, with the first ending in 'aggressive behaviors'. That way you can explain what food-stuffing and hoarding is (especially food-stuffing) in the second sentence.
• Also under Reactive attachment disorder#Prognosis/impact, you may want to define 'secure base distortion' (or again if you do already earlier, for those of us just tooning in).

More in a bit. delldot talk 16:56, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

Here's the last of it, I think:

• Under Reactive attachment disorder#Research from East European orphanages and on maltreated children, is it 'late placed' or 'late-placed'? Also, another sentence is started with a numeral in this section.
• The {{cite journal}} template adds the comma for you between the last and first name, so if you add a comma yourself (e.g. | last=Marvin, |), it puts two in the reference. I took out the ones I caught, but I might have missed some.

That's all I got. :-) delldot talk 17:17, 26 January 2008 (UTC)

Thanks very much delldot.  :{}

Oop, one more thing: On WP:Peer review/Concussion, someone suggested this to me: Per WP:MOSNUM, pairs of a numeral and a word like 8 months should have a nonbreaking space so you don't end up with 8 at the end of one line and months at the beginning of the next. delldot on a public computer talk 11:58, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

How do you do a non-breaking space? Someone else told me the ref names should have them too. Fainites ^barley 19:49, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

Type   (which is one of the wiki markup thingies below the edit window.) What do you mean about the ref names? Colin°^Talk 20:22, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

Thanks. By ref names I mean the bits that go something like - ref name="Fred & Alice 1825" - Fainites ^barley 22:35, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

Never heard of that. Why wouldn't you just write "ref name=FrednAlice1825"? delldot on a public computer talk 03:04, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

Because being computer semi-illiterate it never occured to me! Fainites ^barley 07:04, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

Fvasconcellos

Sorry for the delay, but I've been too busy to give the article a proper review. I'd like to start by noting that I have no background in psychology or child development, so this might be a tough one for me :) Now, for a very quick overview of the lead:

Lead

• First of all, I've done some minor copy editing here over the past two days, and would appreciate it if you let me know whether it's been an improvement.
• At five hefty paragraphs, the lead is quite long. Can anything be shortened or dropped altogether?

The lead is improved with your copyediting - thanks very much :) However, other reviewers think it ought to contain more information, not less :-/ Fainites ^barley 22:40, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

I haven't looked again at the lead recently, but at the time I thought you could make room for more information by condensing what you say and avoiding saying things that were obviously true or not specific enough to RAD. If you feel you have covered all the key points of the article, but the lead is still too big, then I'd sacrifice stuff that is of less interest to the "general reader" and most interest to the academic or medical reader (who is more likely to persevere and read the full article). If you need help condensing your prose, ask a copyeditor to help with just the lead. Colin°^Talk 23:07, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

• Specific points needing improvement:
  • "RAD" is repeated to an almost annoying degree :) Could you replace a couple of instances with "the disorder" or something like that?
  • "developmentally inappropriate social relatedness in most contexts"—you just lost me :)
  • "Such a failure would result from unusual early experiences […]"—drop "unusual"; it's unnecessary. A link to child abuse would be helpful. Also, can we get a little more assertive in this statement, or would it be inaccurate to say "Such a failure usually results from early experiences […]"?
    • Note that above I requested less confidence than "would" since it seemed to imply an inevitability. I'd be reluctant to endorse "usually results" unless you have very strong statistical evidence of cause and effect. Colin°^Talk 20:53, 23 January 2008 (UTC)
      • Thanks, Colin—that's actually what I'm asking: whether such evidence is available. I didn't make myself very clear, sorry :) Fvasconcellos (t·c) 21:35, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

The trouble is, the criteria in DSM and ICD require a history of pathogenic care so if there aren't such early experiences it wouldn't be RAD! (Suffice it to say this is one of the areas on which there is a little research - ie that you can diagnose it without such a history - and that they may want to change in the next round of DSM in 2011). The essence of attachment is relationships so you can't get RAD without some significant lack in early relationships. RAD is presumed to arise from such a lack. Thats why things like PDD are specifically excluded although the result may appear to be similar.Fainites ^barley 22:13, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

Its also quite extreme. Not any old neglect but the cream of neglect as it were. I'll try a different wording.Fainites ^barley 22:46, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

• • Can "attachment 'styles'" be piped to a more specific section of the attachment theory article? That would make way for a direct link to that article later on: "All mainstream treatment and prevention programmes […] are based on attachment theory"

How do you do that? Fainites ^barley 22:58, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

To pipe a link to a section, just type the article name, followed by # and the exact title of the section (including capitalization). So, if you wanted to pipe a link to the "Theoretical framework" section of Reactive attachment disorder, you would code it as [[Reactive attachment disorder#Theoretical framework|The theory behind RAD]], which gives The theory behind RAD. Fvasconcellos (t·c) 23:52, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

• • "diagnostic definitions are under constant review."—should this be in the lead?
  • The mention of Eastern European orphanages has no tie-in in the body of the article; if this was such a milestone, shouldn't it feature more prominently? The lack of a dedicated "History" section in the article is also quite conspicuous, but I suppose "Theoretical framework" partly does the job.

some citations are to these studies and the research is set out at the end of the article. Shold this bit be turned into a history section? Fainites ^barley 23:56, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

• • "Such research broadened […]"—run-on sentence. Massively so.

I'll add further comments as I read the rest of the article, but my initial impression is that it is not exactly a stone's throw from FA level—both on the prose front and regarding accessibility to the lay reader. Best, Fvasconcellos (t·c) 20:19, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

• By the way, I will try not to repeat any advice or concerns voiced by the other reviewers. Too many cooks and all that :) Fvasconcellos (t·c) 20:21, 23 January 2008 (UTC)
  • Feel free, Fvasconcellos, to disagree with anything I've written :-) Colin°^Talk 20:53, 23 January 2008 (UTC)

Is there no Wiki-acceptable glossary feature that can be used? Obviously people don't have the appropriate vocabulary, but the flow of the exposition is completely broken by constant definitions.

If I may comment on the note (above) on using the word "unusual", in fact it is meaningful to stress the unusualness of circumstances that cause these problems, as a wide range of common but different experiences nevertheless permit normal development. The development of attachment behavior and emotion is quite robust, and it is important for readers to understand that this aspect of human life is not easily disturbed.Jean Mercer (talk) 00:18, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

You mean the article is talking about abuse, etc. that is unusually severe even by patterns of unusual behavior? I'd understood "unusual" simply as defining abuse or neglect as atypical behaviors, not "it is thought that quite severe abuse or neglect is required for attachment to be affected". I see now, from Fainites' comment of "Not any old neglect but the cream of neglect as it were", that I'd misunderstood. Fvasconcellos (t·c) 00:50, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

I changed it to 'severe' but do you think it should go back to unusual? And yes, there is a way of linking to the wiktionary I think. Fainites ^barley 00:43, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

Theoretical framework

• "Subsequently, the child learns to use the caregiver as a 'secure base' from which to explore and return." "From which to explore and return" sounds a bit strange to me. I don't suppose you'll consider throwing grammar to the wind and writing "a 'secure base' to explore from and return to" :) Fvasconcellos (t·c) 01:07, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

Whats grammar compared to sense. Fainites ^barley 16:07, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

Ah, I think I like you ;) Fvasconcellos (t·c) 00:06, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

• "Attachment and attachment behaviors tend to develop between the age of six months and three years [...] Attachment develops during the child's first two to three years of life." I'm sorry if I sound blunt, but to me this sounds both redundant and confusing! Would you consider rewording the paragraph that starts "Attachment develops..."? Fvasconcellos (t·c) 01:07, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

Done. Fainites ^barley 16:07, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

• "A disorder in the clinical sense is a condition requiring treatment, as opposed to risk factors for subsequent disorders." Why would the presence of risk factors for the development of a disorder be considered a disorder in itself?

Oh dear. Its one of those bits thats in for the sake of clarity because of the claims of attachment therapists who run disorders, styles and loads of other behaviourial problems together, call it '80%' of all adopted/fostered children and then offer to sell you a 'cure'. 'Attachment disorder' can mean many things to many people but RAD is the only 'official' disorder. I was trying to make the distinction between problematic or potentially problematic attachment styles like 'ambivalent-insecure' or 'disorganized' which carry risks of later pathologies and an actual clinical disorder that a child already has like RAD. Obviously I haven't got that across. :) I'll have another go. Fainites ^barley 09:49, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

• I would really like a bit of context following the mention of attachment styles, rather than simply listing what they are called—I felt sort of thrown into a sea of unexplained technical terms. A brief description would suffice; alternatively, if you'd rather trim than expand, perhaps you could say something along the lines of

Attachment theory defines several 'styles' or 'patterns' [did I get this right, or is there a distinction between style and pattern?] of attachment, which are not abnormal or pathological in themselves. There are wide ranges of attachment difficulties within these styles that [can?] result in varying degrees of emotional disturbance in the child, but none are within the [specific diagnostic] criteria for RAD.

Nice - but I think I'd rather expand than trim otherwise there is still the problem of people thinking that eg 'insecure' or 'avoidant' attachment is an attachment disorder. Fainites ^barley 14:33, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

I've completely rewritten the whole second half of the theoretical framework section to include brief descriptions of styles and to try and make the distinction between problematic styles and RAD clearer. How is it now? Fainites ^barley 16:07, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

Much better, thanks. How about replacing

Although there are wide ranges of attachment difficulties within the styles which may result in emotional disturbance and increase the risk of later psychopathologies, particularly the disorganized style, none of the styles constitute a disorder in themselves and none are within the criteria for RAD. (See ICD-10 and DSM-IV-TR criteria below). A disorder in the clinical sense is a condition requiring treatment, as opposed to risk factors for subsequent disorders. There is a growing body of research on the links between abnormal parenting, disorganized attachment and risks for later psychopathologies. RAD denotes a lack of attachment rather than an attachment style, however problematic that style may be.

with

Although there are wide ranges of attachment difficulties within the styles, particularly the disorganized style, which may result in emotional disturbance and increase the risk of later psychopathologies, none of the styles constitute a disorder in themselves and none are within the criteria for RAD;^[13] RAD denotes a lack of attachment rather than an attachment style, however problematic that style may be. (See ICD-10 and DSM-IV-TR criteria below). [remainder of paragraph as it is now]

What do you think? Fvasconcellos (t·c) 00:06, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

Much better thanks. Fainites ^barley 17:56, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

• Is "aberrant parenting" an established term? It sounds quite prescriptive, even somewhat offensive. Fvasconcellos (t·c) 01:07, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

Changed to abnormal - which doesn't sound much kinder. Bear in mind this is a condition that only may arise in extremely deprived orphanage situations, or with totally 'unavailable' mentally ill mothers or extreme neglect/maltreatment - but even then only sometimes so we are talking about fairly extreme parenting deficiencies. This isn't meant to be a moral judgement. Fainites ^barley 16:07, 27 January 2008 (UTC)

No, of course not; I didn't mean that. I do think the article does a good job of portraying that this is a rare condition associated with an exceedingly adverse environment. Fvasconcellos (t·c) 00:06, 28 January 2008 (UTC)

Awsome!

I am working on playing phantom hourglass and I am a huge fan of the series! I was very impressed that you kept the article as short as you did when you covered as many topics as you did!

• Thanks for your support Historybuff. However I think turning reactive attachment disorder into a computer game is some way off. Fainites ^barley 20:44, 24 January 2008 (UTC)

Hey! We'll make our fortunes-- let's get to work on this project.Jean Mercer (talk) 15:40, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

Lack of attachment

The earlier comments on RAD as lack of attachment: I think this needs to be elaborated on, to point out that RAD behavior involves an unusual lack of discrimination between familiar and unfamiliar people; in one form, the child treats everyone as if they were familiar, and in the other people are all treated as if they are relatively unfamiliar. Jean Mercer (talk) 14:19, 30 January 2008 (UTC)

This is in the theoretical framework section. I was trying to make the distinction between problematic attachment styles and RAD clear. I'll put in an extra sentence. Fainites ^barley 18:57, 30 January 2008 (UTC)