BMJ  2007;334 (31 March), doi:10.1136/bmj.39168.549178.43

Editor's Choice

Editor's choice

Easing the spring

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

As the Northern hemisphere's daffodils do their thing, presaging the spring, the BMJ carries, as well as a daffodil on the cover, some good news. It is possible to improve children's antisocial behaviour by teaching their parents positive parenting skills. Not only that, but the intervention is cost effective.

Conduct disorder is the commonest reason for referring children and adolescents to mental health services, and antisocial behaviour in childhood is a powerful predictor of public service use in adulthood (BMJ 2001;323:191; doi: 10.1136/bmj.323.7306.191). Last year we published the results of an evaluation of Sure Start in England (BMJ 2006;332:1476; doi: 10.1136/bmj.38853.451748.2F), which found that the programme may harm those children most in need. The more encouraging findings from Judy Hutchings and colleagues' pragmatic randomised trial in Wales (pp 678, 682) adds further weight to a recent assessment by NICE, which concluded that parenting programmes seem to . . . [Full text of this article]

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