Comparison of psychological functioning in children and their mothers living through a life-threatening and non life-threatening chronic disease: A pilot study.

Childhood chronic illness is a potential source of distress and can be a traumatic experience both for the child and for the family. Several studies highlighted the importance of integrating psychosocial care and standard medical practice in the child's care. The current pilot study is the first investigation that compared distress in children and their mothers living through a life-threatening illness (cancer) and a non life-threatening (juvenile rheumatoid arthritis) chronic disease. Findings show that there are differences in the psychological functioning in children with respect to age. Moreover, the presence of posttraumatic stress symptoms in mothers of children with cancer seems to be a possible key to understanding the psychological response in this specific population.

Psychophysiological mechanisms underlying spatial attention in children with primary headache.

OBJECTIVE: Neurophysiological studies to evaluate spatial attention in children with primary headache are lacking. Tactile spatial attention modulates the N140 somatosensory evoked potential (SEP) amplitude. The aims of the study are: (1) to investigate the effect of spatial attention on the N140 amplitude in children with migraine and tension-type headache (TTH) and in healthy children, and (2) to correlate the neurophysiological results with a neuropsychological test for spatial attention. METHODS: We studied 16 patients with migraine without aura (MoA), 12 TTH children and 10 healthy subjects. "Deux Barrage" test for spatial attention was administered. SEPs were recorded in a neutral condition (NC) and in a spatial attention condition (SAC). RESULTS: No significant differences in neuropsychological measures were found between MoA, TTH and healthy subjects. The N140 amplitude increase during SAC, as compared to NC, was significantly higher in patients than in healthy controls. Migraineurs showed a positive correlation between the N140 amplitude increase during SAC and their neuropsychological performance. CONCLUSIONS: Although spatial attention performances in children with headache are as good as in controls, the N140 amplitude increase during SAC in headache patients suggests that the psychophysiological mechanisms subtending spatial attention are different from those in healthy children.