[Test computer systems in the diagnosis of cognitive disorders as observed in the syndrome of attention deficiency with hyperactivity in children].

The instrumental methods of evaluation of the cognitive ability of child by means of test computer systems open up real opportunities for the objective and thorough examination of main processes of the cognitive ability. An objective quantitation of the cognitive sphere makes it possible to prognosticate the intellectual development of child and to use such methods not only in the diagnosis and prevention but also in the correction of cognitive disorders.

[Development of the locomotive and neurologic symptoms in the offspring of schizophrenics during the first few years of life]. / Formirovanie lokomotoriki i nevrologicheskie simptomy u potomstva bol'nykh shizofreniei v pervye gody zhizni.

The author provides the neurological characteristics and the follow-up data on the development of locomotion in 36 children aged 3 months to 3 years born to schizophrenic patients. Three variants of motor development were distinguished: the first one--early and proper development; the second one--short-term retardation at some stages, namely before the age of 1 year and 4 months, with intermittent episodes in the development and a proper or little changed formula of the postural and motor development; the third one--appreciable retardation and perversion of the motor developmental formula, insufficiency of the extrapyramidal and cortical components of the motor act, preserved even after 3 years of age. Among the discovered neurological symptoms, disorders in the system of gaze innervation, vocal and motor disorders, motor stereotypies, disturbances of the extrapyramidal and cortical component of the motor act, the hydrocephalic syndrome can be attributed to more specific ones as regards the schizotypic dysontogenesis. They were distinguished for using in further follow-up of the children.

[Neuropsychological disintegration in the early ontogenesis of children from a group at high-risk of developing endogenous mental diseases]. / Nervno-psikhicheskaia dezintegratsiia v rannem ontogeneze detei iz gruppy vysokogo riska po éndogennym psikhicheskim zabolevaniiam.

The article is devoted to the topical questions of the study of the progeny born to patients with endogenic mental diseases, the search for psychopathological, neurological and other precursors of schizophrenia and the appearance of initial psychic disturbances associated with endogenic diseases in young children. A prospective study on the neuropsychic development of children from a high risk group has made it possible to identify specific deviations in the formation of mental and motor functions, as well as in the formation of behavioural reactions, contacts, and speech. Following specific disontogenesis some children developed psychopathological phenomena which may be considered as an onset of mental diseases at the given age. Further follow-up of this group of children will make it possible to differentiate symptoms of the disease from developmental deviations. At the present stage of the investigation it is difficult to answer the question whether the detected neuropsychic disintegration in the first years of life is only an indicator of subsequent schizophrenia.

[Dynamics of the hypertensive-hydrocephalic syndrome in infants]. / Dinamika gipertenzionno-gidrotsefal'nogo sindroma u detei rannego vozrasta.

Results of a 3-year-long observation of 1,158 children in whom the hypertensive-hydrocephalic syndrome was diagnosed in the first months of life are presented. With regard to the size of the head, the gravity of the hypertensive-hydrocephalic symptoms, and the changes on the part of the nervous system by the third year of the life the children were divided into three groups. The first group included 51 children with progressing hypertensive syndrome and congenital hydrocephalus because of anomalies of the cerebrospinal fluid system and the brain. In 821 children of the second group, the head remained enlarged in size by 3 to 10 cm. In half of them changes of the neurological status in the form of pathologies of the craniocerebral nerves, high tendon reflexes, pareses, and the atactic syndrome were revealed. In 102 children there remained a retardation of the psychic and speech development. 286 children of the third group were found to be healthy at the age of 3 years. Thus, in 1/3 of the children who have had a perinatal pathology the hypertensive-hydrocephalic syndrome appeared to be of a transitory character, and regressed completely by the age of two years.

[Sanatorium-health resort treatment of children with hereditary diseases of the neuromuscular system]. / O sanatorno-kurortnom lechenii detei s nasledstvennymi zabolevaniiami nervno-myshechnoi sistemy.

The study was aimed at determining the efficacy of sanatorium treatment of patients with hereditary neuromuscular abnormalities. Sanatorium methods of treatment combined with drug therapy were found to be more effective as compared with outpatient or hospital treatment. The sanatorium treatment proved most effective in children with congenital myopathy, Charcot-Marie neural amyotrophy, and Roussy-Levy polyneuropathy. Improvement in the general status and motor functions was correlated with certain improvement in dynamometric findings, locomotor tests, stabilization of a number of parameters of electroneuromyographic examination, and biochemical findings. The results point to the necessity of setting up specialized departments in childhood neurologic sanatoria or sanatoria specializing in the treatment of children with individual forms of neuromuscular diseases at health resorts which can provide treatment with sulphide waters or therapeutic mud.

[Clinico-psychopathological aspects of borderline mental disorders in infancy]. / Kliniko-psikhopatologicheskie aspekty pogranichnykh psikhicheskikh rasstroistv v mladenchestve.

The authors summarize the data obtained during a comprehensive examination of 200 children of the first year of life with borderline mental disorders. Abnormalities of vegetative and instinctive regulation, psychomotor and affective disorders which are, as a rule, of the borderline nature, occupy the leading position in the structure of the above-indicated disorders. The latter ones are associated frequently enough with different types of development retardation and neurological deviations from normal. The signs of differentiating between these disorders and analogous ones within the framework of endogenous mental pathology are depicted. The role is demonstrated of etiological factors (perinatal encephalopathy, constitutional, psychosocial, disturbances of the mother-child system). The studies attest to the basic demonstrability of psychopathological abnormalities and to their great diversity in infants.

[The effect of the earthquake in Armenia on the mental health of the pediatric population of the damaged regions]. / Vliianie zemletriaseniia v Armenii na psikhicheskoe zdorov'e detskogo naseleniia postradavshikh raionov.

The authors relate neuropsychic disorders in children and adolescents of Armenia in the acute period and 3 months after the earthquake. The pathological disorders were dependent on the individual reactivity of the child and environmental factors. 3 months after the earthquake 31% of the examines demonstrated marked mental disturbances. The prevalence of mental pathology among the population groups living in the regions damaged by the earthquake demands organization of specialized assistance for the population.

[Tension-type headache and mental disorders in children].

Based on the analysis of current literature, the authors reviewed diagnostic aspects and the relationship between tension-type headache (TH) and mental disorders in 78 children, aged from 7 to 15 years, admitted to a neurological unit in 2004-2007 and in 45 children admitted to a psychiatric hospital. The latter group included 22 patients with depressive episodes, 11 with anxiety-phobic disorder and 12 with schizotypal personality disorder. The comparison of clinical features of headache in these groups revealed that TH was associated with mental disorders and chronic TH in most cases was a symptom of a mental disease (primarily depression). The authors stress the importance of the interdisciplinary approach to investigation, diagnosis and treatment of chronic headache in children.

[Autoantibodies to α7-subunit of neuronal acetylcholine receptor in children with traumatic brain injury].

An objective of the study was to search for new biologically significant markers of brain damage. Levels of blood serum autoantibodies (aAB) to different fragments of α7-subunit of acetylcholine receptor (ACR) were studied in children with traumatic brain injury of different severity. The more severe was trauma, the higher was the level of aAB to fragments of α7-subunit of ACR in the first week after trauma. The data obtained suggest that α7-subunits of ACR and aAB to them are involved in the pathogenesis of traumatic brain lesions and, probably, play a significant role in the course of post traumatic period.

[Autoantibodies to glutamate receptors and metabolic products of nitric oxide in blood serum of children in the acute period of brain trauma].

Autoantibodies (AB) to glutamate receptors of AMPA (Glur1) and NMDA (NR2A) types and nitric oxide metabolites, nitrates and nitrites (NOx), were studied in the blood serum of children with brain trauma of different severity. The level of both AB types increased from the 1st to the 10th day after trauma. The level of NMDA (NR2A) AB was higher comparing to AMPA (Glur1). Patients with mild brain trauma, scoring 14-15 on the Coma Glasgow Scale, had the highest AB concentration while patients with severe brain trauma (scores <9), had the lower level of NMDA (NR2A) AB. The lowest level of AB and the highest level of NOx in the blood serum were found in a group of children with the fatal outcome of severe brain trauma. The many-fold increase of NOx concentration in this group points to marked hypoxia after severe brain trauma.

[Cerebral hemodynamics in the context of differential diagnosis and management of headache in children].

Using transcranial Doppler ultrasonography, cerebral hemodynamics has been studied in 140 children, aged 6-16 years, with different types of headache in the interictal period. According to a type of headache the patients have been divided into groups as follows: migraine, headache of tension and unspecified headache with arterial hypotension, arterial hypertension and normal blood pressure. The predominance of different changes of cerebral hemodynamics was found in patients compared to the control group. These changes were heterogeneous within the type of headache. All types of headache, with exception of headache with arterial hypertension, were characterized by low vascular tone of the cerebral arteries and increased bloodstream velocity. A high percent of cerebral venous defects was observed in all the groups. These disturbances should be taken into account in prescription of vasoactive drugs to children with headache.

[Autoantibodies to glutamate receptors in children with chronic posttraumatic headache].

Autoantibodies (aAB) to AMPA (Glu R1 subunit) and NMDA (NR 2A subunit) glutamate receptors were studied in blood serum of 60 children, aged 7-16 years, with chronic posttraumatic headache after mild skull injury. All the children were divided into 2 groups: group 1 included 48 children with concussion of the brain, group 2--12 children with brain contusion. Group 1 was divided into 2 subgroups: subgroup 1a comprised 34 children with single concussion and subgroup 1b--14 children with repeated concussion. The aAB level was determined 6 months and 1 year after skull injury. The aAB concentration was expressed in percents to the control level being considered significant if the increase was higher than 120%. The increased NMDA aAB level was observed during the first year after skull injury. In the la subgroup, the NR2 aAB level in blood serum was 145 +/- 12,6%, in the 1b one--108 +/- 12,4%, in group 2--165 +/- 34%. The content of aAB to AMPA receptors was elevated only in children of lb subgroup and group 2 (150 +/- 16,8% and 167 +/- 31,3%, respectively). The EEG examination of this group revealed the nonspecific paroxysmal discharges in 18% of cases and epileptiform activity in 6% of children. The results obtained suggest that children with posttraumatic headache have elevated levels of aAB to glutamate receptors, hyperstimulation of which reflects hypoxic processes in the brain, and are in need of metabolic therapy.

[Motor disorders and their correction in children from a high-risk group for the development of schizophrenia at an early age]. / Dvigatel'nye narusheniia i ikh korrektsiia u detei iz gruppy vysokogo riska po razvitiiu shizofrenii v rannem vozraste.

A 7-year study of locomotor function in 103 children born in the families where one of the parents suffered from schizophrenia has found no locomotor abnormalities only in 20% cases. The rest of them had: disorders of the general locomotor activity, disorders of the static and locomotor development, symptoms of extrapyramidal and cerebral regulation dysfunctions, changes of the muscle tone, ataxia, pathologic locomotor phenomena, speech disorders. The severity of the above disturbances and their variability correlated with the child's general and mental development. Attempts of relevant locomotor correction including massage provided good results.

[Methodological approaches to investigation of autonomic nervous system functions in young children]. / Metodicheskie podkhody k izucheniiu vegetativnykh funktsii u detei rannego vozrasta.

Techniques for investigation of a functional condition of autonomic nervous system in young children--anamnesis questionnaire, a list of basic vegetative disorders and screening table for vegetative tonus evaluation--were elaborated. These tools have been tested in a longitudinal study of more than 200 children, aged 3 months to 5 years, with various psychic disorders, 143 being related to high-risk group for schizophrenia, and were proved to be higher informative, simpler and more convenient for practitioners.

[A method for determining the mental development of children up to 3 years old--the Schedule for the Neuropsychological Examination of Infants]. / Metodika opredeleniia psikhicheskogo razvitiia detei do 3 let--GNOM.

GNOM--is standard method of estimation of health state in babies and infants with determination of coefficient of mental development. Method's basis appears to be tasks and tests allowing to evaluate (in scores) the state of the main neuropsychiatric spheres, namely: sensory, motor, emotional, cognitive and social-communicative. Method exists both in ordinary and computer variations. It was approved in process of observation of 500 children. GNOM permits to perform the screening of children in big children's contingents. It may be used by either the physicians or other medical personnel as well as by the parents too.

[Nerve growth factor auto-antibodies in children with various forms of mental dysontogenesis and in schizophrenia high risk group]. / Autoantitela k faktoru rosta nervov u detei s razlichnymi formami psikhicheskogo dizontogeneza i iz gruppy vysokogo riska po shizofrenii.

The level of autoantibodies (AAb) to nerve growth factor was evaluated in blood serum of 163 children with different forms of mental dysontogenesis of endogenic, residual-organic, psychogenic and deprivative origin. Significant elevation of the level of AAb was found in all forms of psychic dysontogenesis. The most significant elevation of the level of AAb (p < 0.01), as compared with the controls (45 children), was characteristic for endogenic forms of dysontogenesis (schizophrenia, early children's autism, schizotypic diathesis). The level of AAb was also found as an indicator of the acuteness of the pathologic state. Besides, its elevation was observed 1-2 weeks prior to the onset of the clinical exacerbation. Elevation of AAb level was also found in psychic dysontogenesis of residual-organic nature (children with perinatal encephalopathy), but it was not so significant as compared with the controls (p < 0.05%). The analysis in the age dynamics of children from this group revealed, that AAb level may serve as some prognostic index of the severity of psychic dysontogenesis. The level of AAb differs some states in schizotypic diathesis and deprivative dysontogenesis, which are clinically quite similar. The method for the estimation of serum AAb level may be proposed as screening in prophylactic medical examination of children from the first year of life under conditions of pediatric outpatient service for identification of risk-groups by psychic dysontogenesis to perform early special psychoprophylaxis.

[Autoantibodies to the nerve growth factor in disorders in the mental development of young children]. / Autoantitela k faktoru rosta nervov pri narusheniiakh psikhicheskogo razvitiia detei rannego vozrasta.

80 children aged 1-3 years were examined. They were divided into 3 groups by the degree and structure of disorders of mental development: children with predominant delay of speech development (group 1); with a delay of psychic development due to organic damage of CNS (group 2); with deviation of psychic development and the most pronounced psychopathologic symptomatology (group 3). There was a significant (p < 0.001) elevation in the blood level of autoantibodies to nerve growth factor (NGF) in children from all groups as compared with control one (0.75 +/- 0.24 OD units). The level of such autoantibodies also increased during transition from the 1st to the 3d group (0.95 +/- 0.24 in group 1; 1.13 +/- 0.27 in group 2; 1.24 +/- 0.4 in group 3). The correlations allow us to suppose that the level of autoantibodies to NGF might be considered, together with some other signs, as a potential molecular marker indicating a disorder in the development of nervous system.

[Electroencephalographic correlates of schizophrenic type mental disorders at an early age in childhood]. / Elektroéntsefalograficheskie korreliaty psikhicheskikh narushenii shizofrenicheskogo spektra v rannem detskov vozraste.

Electroencephalographic study was performed in 30 children of 1-3 years old from the group with the high risk of schizophrenia. Clinical observation of the patients was performed in the period of EEG recording and follow-up study was also made during 10-12 years. Three groups of patients were picked out with the differences in both clinical and electrophysiologic indices. Bundle beta-activity was registered on EEG in the cases of an active schizophrenic process. A presence of the spindles of the sleep and their dominance on EEG were characteristic for children with nonprocessual disorders of psychopathic-like type with disinhibition of the drives. Hypersynchronism of delta- and theta-activities were observed in the cases of schizotypic diathesis and an early children's autism with the predominance of paroxysmal somato-autonomic disorders.