February 24, 2008, 10:06 PM CT

Children Who Do Not Get Enough Sleep

Lack of adequate sleep can lead to increased injuries among preschool children, new research shows. This study published in Public Health Nursing shows that the average number of injuries during the preschool years is two times higher for children who don't get enough sleep each day as described by their mothers.

Each year approximately 20-25 percent of all children in the United States sustain injuries that require medical attention. Childhood injury is one of the 10 Leading Health Indicators being tracked over the next 10 years by the U.S. Public Health Service.

Christina Koulouglioti, Ph.D., R.N., and his colleagues, Dr R.Cole & Dr H.Kitzman, of the University of Rochester School of Nursing collected data from nearly 300 mothers and their preschool children over the course of 2 ½ years. Mothers reported on their child's sleep, and data on injuries were collected through self-report and medical records. The study was funded by the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.

The study found a direct negative relationship between children's sleep and injuries. Children who get an adequate amount of sleep sustain fewer injuries. The National Sleep Foundation recommends that children three to six years of age get 11 hours or more of sleep a day......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

February 14, 2008, 10:09 PM CT

Physicians Pinpoint Cause Of Children's Seizures

It was no way for an 11-year-old to live. For a month the boy had endured daily episodes of uncontrollable jerking and foaming at the mouth, and his physicians at Lucile Packard Children's Hospital were concerned that the boy had epilepsy. Before starting the boy on a lifetime of anti-seizure medications, though, they turned to an unconventional diagnostic tool: hypnosis.

"Children are highly suggestible and they have great imaginations," said Packard Children's child psychiatry expert Richard Shaw, MD. "We've observed that if we suggest that they are going to have one of their events while they are in a hypnotic trance, they will commonly have one".

But wait. Aren't physicians supposed to try to STOP seizures rather than searching for new ways to cause them? In a word, yes. But in order to treat seizures effectively, doctors must learn which parts of the brain are causing the trouble. A number of children who seem to be having epileptic seizures are actually having an involuntary physical reaction to psychological stress in their lives. These events require a vastly different therapy than do true epileptic seizures.

The only way to pinpoint the true cause is to monitor the child's brain activity during an event. Connecting a panel of electrodes to a child's scalp is relatively easy and painless. Conducting a "seizure watch" of indefinite length is another matter......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

February 12, 2008, 9:20 PM CT

Gene research to explain autistic savants

Mice lacking a certain brain protein learn some tasks better but also forget faster, as per new research from MIT that may explain the phenomenon of autistic savants in humans. The work could also result in future therapys for autism and other brain development disorders.

Scientists at the Picower Institute for Learning and Memory at MIT report in the Feb. 13 issue of the Journal of Neuroscience that mice genetically engineered to lack a key protein used for building synapses--the junctions through which brain cells communicate--actually learned a spatial memory task faster and better than normal mice. But when tested weeks later, they couldn't remember what they had learned as well as normal mice, and they had trouble remembering contexts that should have provoked fear.

"These opposite effects on different types of learning are reminiscent of the mixed features of autistic patients, who may be disabled in some cognitive areas but show enhanced abilities in others," said Albert Y. Hung, a postdoctoral associate at the Picower Institute, staff neurologist at Massachusetts General Hospital and co-author of the study. "The superior learning ability of these mutant mice in a specific realm is reminiscent of human autistic savants."

Autism is one of a group of developmental disabilities known as autism spectrum disorders (ASDs), in which a person's ability to communicate and interact with others is impaired. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that one in 150 American children have an ASD. Occasionally, an autistic person has an outstanding skill, such as an incredible rote memory or musical ability. Such individuals--like the character Dustin Hoffman played in the film "Rain Man"--may be referred to as autistic savants......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

February 6, 2008, 9:15 PM CT

Adolescent Reaction to Iraq War

University of Cincinnati scientists are reporting what they call a significant pattern among Iraqi adolescents and their reaction to the war in Iraq - the higher the perceived threat of the war, the higher the teens reported their self-esteem. The findings - from a 2004 survey of 1,000 Iraqi adolescents in 10 neighborhoods in Baghdad - are published in the current issue of the Journal of Adolescence.

Steve Carlton-Ford, a University of Cincinnati associate professor and co-author of the study, says the findings give a rare look at the impact of war on adolescents, explaining that, in general, sociologists and psychology experts are examining how war affects small children. Carlton-Ford adds that in the cases of young children, conflict-related events typically lower a child's psychological well-being. The survey of Iraqi teens was conducted in 2004 by co-author Morton Ender of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, who supervised field surveys with the U.S. Army in the neighborhoods surrounding Baghdad. The study is also authored by UC doctoral student Ahoo Tabatabai.

The authors observed that despite obvious threat to the adolescents' sense of security, the youth were coping fairly well in 2004, with self-esteem levels comparable to that of Palestinian youth. "In the presence of conflict-related trauma one generally observes lower levels of psychological well-being (e.g., PTSD, grief reactions), and sometimes lower self-esteem," write the authors. "Our results, however, are consistent with a body of theory and research that predicts self-esteem striving and higher self-esteem among the individuals who face indirect threats to central components of their social identities (rather than directly facing traumatic war-related events). In other words, in a situation where we observe a broad social context involving the presence of foreign forces ( a clear violation of Muslim principles) combined with general violence throughout Baghdad and Iraq, we also observe a heightened sense of self, at least to the extent that one's self is tied to one's nation"......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

January 31, 2008, 10:59 PM CT

Survival rates of premature infants

Survival rates for the most premature babies at a top London hospital have more than doubled over a 20 year period, as per research reported in the latest edition of the journal Acta Paediatrica.

The study, led by scientists at University College London (UCL) and University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust (UCLH), suggests significant improvements in survival rates can be achieved when maternity and neonatal units have consistent staffing, resources and therapy policies.

The research shows that the overall rates of survival for infants born alive between 22 and 25 weeks of gestation and admitted to the neonatal unit at UCLH increased from 32 per cent to 71 per cent between 1981 and 2000. This includes babies born in other hospitals and transferred to UCH for intensive care.

The scientists also looked at the survival of infants born at the hospital between 1991 and 2000, including those born at 22-25 weeks gestation who died before they reached intensive care. The survival rate for this group at the end of the study period was 69 per cent -- in comparison to 71 per cent for the group that included only babies admitted to the neonatal unit. This suggests that the results were not solely a consequence of selecting infants with a higher chance of survival......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

January 31, 2008, 9:55 PM CT

Parenting program does not prevent toddler behavior problems

A study of the first universal parenting programme, designed to prevent early child behaviour problems, shows that it has little impact on toddler behaviour.

The study, conducted at the Centre for Community Child Health (CCCH) in Melbourne, Australia, is published on bmj.com today.

Behaviour problems affect up to 20 per cent of children and have major personal, societal and economic ramifications. Left untreated, up to half of behaviour problems in preschool children develop into later mental health problems.

Prevention targeted to high-risk families can be effective, but has limited reach and may stigmatise. Universal programmes offered to all families could address these concerns, but their effectiveness is uncertain.

Scientists from the CCCH and the Parenting Research Centre, with input from maternal and child health nurses, designed a programme suitable for all parents to be delivered by trained health professionals in primary care. The programme aimed to prevent child behaviour problems, such as defiance and aggression, and improve parenting and maternal mental health.

Over 700 mothers of 8 month-old infants took part in the study and were randomised to either the programme (three sessions at age 8-15 months) or usual care from their local Maternal and Child Health centre. Mothers were surveyed throughout the study and their mental health was assessed when their children reached 18 and 24 months......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

January 22, 2008, 11:08 PM CT

Questions About Diagnosis, Medical Treatment Of ADHD

A new UCLA study shows that only about half of children diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD, exhibit the cognitive defects usually linked to the condition.

The study also observed that in populations where medicine is rarely prescribed to treat ADHD, the prevalence and symptoms of the disorder are roughly equivalent to populations in which medicine is widely used.

The results of the first large, longitudinal study of adolescents and ADHD, conducted among the population of northern Finland, appeared in several papers in a special section of the Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry published in December and are currently online.

ADHD is a common, chronic behavioral disorder characterized by inattention, hyperactivity and impulsivity that is thought to affect some 5 to 10 percent of school-age children worldwide.

In adolescence, ADHD is generally linked to cognitive deficits, especially with working memory and inhibition, which have been associated with overall intelligence and academic achievement, as per UCLA psychiatry professor Susan Smalley, who headed the research. Interestingly, the study showed that these deficits are only present in about half of adolescents diagnosed with ADHD......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

January 21, 2008, 8:29 PM CT

Saline nasal wash helps improve children's cold symptoms

A saline nasal wash solution made from processed seawater appears to improve nasal symptoms and may help prevent the recurrence of respiratory infections when used by children with the common cold, as per a report in the recent issue of Archives of Otolaryngology, one of the JAMA/Archives journals.

Infections of the upper respiratory tract and sinus infections are common among children, as per background information in the article. Nasal irrigation with isotonic [balanced] saline solutions seems effective in such health conditions and is often used in a variety of indications as an adjunctive therapy, the authors write as background information in the article. Eventhough saline nasal wash is currently mentioned in several guidelines, scientific evidence of its efficacy is rather poor.

Ivo lapak, M.D., of Teaching Hospital Brno, Brno, Czech Republic, and his colleagues randomly assigned 401 children age 6 to 10 with cold or flu to two therapy groups, one receiving standard medicine and the other also receiving a nasal wash with a modified processed seawater solution. Patients were observed for a total of 12 weeks, from January to April 2006, during which health status, symptoms and medicine use were assessed at four visits over the course of the trial, the authors write. Acute illness was reviewed during the first two visits (up to three weeks), prevention during the following two visits (up to 12 weeks). The third visit, scheduled for week eight after study entry, could be conducted over the telephone......... Posted by: Sue      Read more         Source

January 8, 2008, 8:56 PM CT

Device prevents potential errors

A device designed to eliminate mistakes made while mixing compounds at a hospital pharmacy was 100 percent accurate in identifying the proper formulations of seven intravenous drugs.

Five potentially serious medicine errors were averted over an 18-month period in a test at C.S. Mott Children's Hospital in the University of Michigan Health System by using the technology, said Jim Stevenson, associate dean of Clinical Sciences at the U-M College of Pharmacy. Stevenson also directs Pharmacy Services at the U-M Health System.

Stevenson said the hospital is the first in the world to use this device to test patient drugs compounded in the pharmacy. The U-M Health System already has a number of safeguards, such as bar coding, in place to avert mistakes.

"Errors in compounding these types of medications are rare. However, when they occur they can have a significant negative impact on patients and staff," Stevenson said. "We know from having this technology in place we've deterred five errors that might have happened. I really believe having technology like this needs to be the standard around the country".

The table-top device manufactured by ValiMed, a division of Tuscon, Ariz.,-based CDEX Inc., uses a technique called enhanced photoemission spectroscopy to determine if the compounds are correct. Light is shot into the drug compound, which excites molecules, and the energy emitted by the excited molecules is measured by a spectrometer. Each drug compound tested has its own so-called light fingerprint, which is in comparison to the fingerprint of the control compound. If they match, the drug is considered correct......... Posted by: JoAnn      Read more         Source

January 7, 2008, 10:56 PM CT

Infants with Birthmarks Received Less Oxygen

A hemangioma is a non-malignant tumor of cells that line blood vessels, appearing during the first few weeks of life as a large birthmark or lesion. A study published in Pediatric Dermatology reveals that a disturbance of oxygen depletion was found in placentas of babies who developed infantile hemangioma (IH).

Scientists evaluated placental samples from 26 pregnancies with babies who weighed less than 3.5 pounds, 13 consisting of newborns who developed IH after birth and 13 healthy preterm infants who did not have IH.

Only one of the infants without IH showed an abnormal placenta. The higher ratio of placental anomalies in babies with IH suggests that reduced oxygen to the placenta contributed to fetal stress, and that stress led to infantile hemangioma development.

"Our results suggest that disturbed placental circulation is a factor underlying the development of hemangiomas in very low weight newborns and indicates that placental examination is essential for clarifying the physiologic changes leading to IH in babies with normal birth weight," the authors conclude......... Posted by: Emily      Read more         Source