Cooccurrence of childhood behavioural, emotional, and developmental problems and disorders—including autism spectrum disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, tic disorder, developmental coordination disorder, language disorder, intellectual developmental disorder, early onset affective disorders, and reactive attachment disorder—and sharing of symptoms across disorders (sometimes referred to as comorbidity) are the rule rather than the exception in child psychiatry and developmental pediatrics/medicine. The acronym ESSENCE refers to early symptomatic syndromes eliciting neurodevelopmental clinical examinations. The term was coined by Gillberg (2010) and covers the named disorders that present with symptoms in a wide variety of constellations and in overlapping developmental domains.

This special issue is dedicated to the broad field of neurodevelopmental disorders to highlight the intersection between child health, pediatrics, psychiatry, and neurology. We invite authors to contribute original research articles as well as review articles relating to the concept of ESSENCE that emphasizes the common cooccurrence, diagnostic (in)stability, shared genetic or epigenetic factors, common neural substrates of neurodevelopmental disorders, and the need to adopt a broad approach in assessments and intervention—so as to better capture the clinical picture and appropriate treatments of these public health problems. Potential topics include, but are not limited to:

• Early diagnosis
• Screening
• Intervention
• Prevalence studies
• Outcome
• Basic neuroscience (EEG, fMRI, neurochemistry, etc.)
• Genetics

Before submission authors should carefully read over the journal's Author Guidelines, which are located at http://www.tswj.com/guidelines/. Prospective authors should submit an electronic copy of their complete manuscript through the journal Manuscript Tracking System at http://mts.tswj.com/author/submit/psychiatry/essence/ according to the following timetable: