ABSTRACT
Sibling relationships wherein at least one sibling suffers from a mental disorder have seldom been studied. The few existing studies found that children with mental disorders reported high levels of disputes within sibling relationships as well as less parental support and admiration. The aim of the present study was to examine the quality of sibling relationships in children and adolescents with a psychiatric diagnosis (clinical sample [CS]) as compared to an age and gender matched healthy control group (HC). One hundred fifty-six children and adolescents (nCS = 78/nHC = 78) between 8 and 18 years of age were recruited. The CS consisted of patients recruited from the daycare facility and inpatient unit of the Department of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy Charité-Universitätsmedizin Berlin. HC was matched by gender, sibling position, and age. Quality of sibling relationships was examined using the German version of the Sibling Relationship Questionnaire (SRQ-deu, self-report). Additionally, the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL 4-18) was implemented in the CS to enable a classification into externalizing, internalizing, and combined disorders. The CS sample reported a warmer sibling relationship compared to the HC sample. Conflict within the sibling relationship differed significantly between participants with internalizing, externalizing, and combined disorders. Relevance of sibling relationships as a possible resource for children and adolescents with a mental illness is discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).
Subject(s)
Family Conflict/psychology , Mental Disorders/psychology , Sibling Relations , Adolescent , Child , Female , Humans , Male , Risk FactorsABSTRACT
Parents of infants and young children, who have been diagnosed with cancer wish to protect their child from the emotional strains of their illness. They wonder, what the child can understand about the illness and how it is able to process or assimilate the experience of the illness. In fact, infants and young children are particularly sensitive to the degree of emotional burden and the mental state of their parents and will experience varying degrees of insecurity due to even small changes in their relationship with their parents. On the basis of psychological development parameters specific to this age group as well as scientific findings on risk and protection factors an integrated interaction based counseling approach was developed. Within this approach, support for the communication between parent and child in view of the specific strains of their illness, both non-verbal and in the child's early stages of verbal communication, is central. In the present article the counselling concept is described and illustrated by case studies. Application and limits are discussed.
Subject(s)
Child of Impaired Parents/psychology , Counseling/methods , Neoplasms/psychology , Social Support , Child, Preschool , Communication , Comprehension , Concept Formation , Cost of Illness , Education/methods , Female , Humans , Infant , Male , Parent-Child Relations , Play TherapyABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: The subjective evaluation of a psychotherapeutic treatment may be an essential aspect of the recovery from an eating disorder. Our study investigates the subjective treatment evaluation by patients with eating disorders and the accordance with their parents' and psychotherapist's evaluation. METHOD: In a sample of 41 eating-disorder patients (M(Age) = 16.3; SD = 1.26), their parents and psychotherapists, we used a questionnaire (FBB) to assess satisfaction with Dialectical Behavioral Therapy treatment. RESULTS: Our results show good ratings, as well as good correlations between patients and parents. CONCLUSIONS: The findings implicate the importance of assessing a subjective therapy rating in addition to objective parameters.
Subject(s)
Anorexia Nervosa/therapy , Bulimia Nervosa/therapy , Cognitive Behavioral Therapy/methods , Meditation , Parents/psychology , Patient Satisfaction , Reality Testing , Adolescent , Anorexia Nervosa/diagnosis , Anorexia Nervosa/psychology , Bulimia Nervosa/diagnosis , Bulimia Nervosa/psychology , Female , Humans , Patient Admission , Personality Inventory , Statistics as Topic , Surveys and Questionnaires , Treatment OutcomeABSTRACT
If humans are exposed prenatally to antiepileptic drugs (AEDs), cognitive impairment may be the consequence. Driven by results of experimental work showing that AEDs may induce neuronal death in the developing rodent brain, we wanted to explore whether prenatal exposure to AEDs (PAE) may result in structural changes in the human brain. For this purpose we investigated a group of healthy young adults with PAE and a group of age-matched unexposed healthy controls by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain. Local differences in cerebral morphology associated with PAE were analysed in volumetric MRI data by use of voxelwise comparisons of grey and white matter images. Significant regional decreases of grey matter volumes were found in PAE subjects in the area of the lentiform nucleus, including both pallidum and putamen bilaterally, and the hypothalamus. No significant regional differences in white matter volumes were found. We conclude that PAE causes subtle morphological changes in grey matter of the human brain which are conform with lower cell numbers in the basal ganglia and the hypothalamus.