As part of a longitudinal investigation begun in the neonatal period, selected neuromotor behaviors and different facets of general mental development were investigated blind at 6 years of age in 64 index offspring of women with a history of schizophrenic, schizoaffective, affective and unspecified functional psychosis and in 95 control offspring of women with no history of psychosis. Compared with the controls, the offspring of psychotics (total index group) showed a significantly increased frequency of both multiple and specific neuromotor deviations. The offspring of women with schizophrenia and with unspecified functional psychosis showed increased rates of multiple neuromotor deviations, not found in the offspring of women with schizoaffective and affective psychoses. The neuromotor deviations were confirmed on Griffiths Developmental Test subscales reflecting gross and fine motor performance, and the deficits did not extend to subscales measuring cognitive ability and personal-social competence. No relationship was found between the individual subject's neonatal and 6-year deviation scores. The results suggest the existence of a selective neuromotor developmental deviation in the offspring of schizophrenics and women with unspecified functional psychosis. Different possible etiological factors are discussed.

Child↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Carbohydrate-deficient glycoprotein syndromes: peculiar group of new disorders.

A new group of metabolic disorders, the carbohydrate-deficient glycoprotein (CDG) syndromes, is reviewed with emphasis on the key condition, the CDG syndrome type I. This disease, an autosomal-recessive multisystem condition, has now been diagnosed in 45 Scandinavian patients. It is characterized by carbohydrate deficiencies of a number of glycoproteins, including uniform changes in transferrin. The transferrin alterations provide a distinct biologic marker and a practical and simple laboratory diagnostic means employing analysis of serum or blood spots from Guthrie-type filter paper. The syndrome presents differently through various life periods. A four-stage grouping system by age has been constructed and is presented. During infancy, internal organ symptoms are dominant; some may be life-threatening. In later childhood and adolescence, static mental deficiency, cerebellar ataxia, slowly progressive lower limb neuropathy, and pigmentary retinal degeneration, as well as secondary skeletal deformities, are the most prominent findings. Two very recently described clinical and biologic variants, CDG syndromes II and III, are summarized and compared to CDG type I.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Epilepsy in adolescence: implications for the development of personality.

Sixteen adolescent children with onset of epilepsy between the ages of 1 and 12 years and 16 control children were investigated by interview, self-esteem scales, and the Thematic Apperception Test (TAT). Children with epilepsy had a significantly larger discrepancy between the self-image and the ideal self-image than did the control children. TAT indicated the body and self-image is poorer, the unknown and the risk of acting out more threatening, the sex identity less stable, and the defense not as adaptive as the control group. Persons suffering from epilepsy are often stigmatized. One explanation could be the influence of epilepsy on the development during adolescence of the basic trust of their bodies and of themselves.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Daytime sleep tendency before and after discontinuation of antiepileptic drugs in preadolescent children with epilepsy.

In 9 preadolescent children treated for epilepsy who had been free from seizures long enough for treatment to be discontinued, daytime vigilance was studied before and after discontinuation of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs). Comparisons were made with healthy controls. Multiple sleep latency test (MSLT), EEG, and a questionnaire were used. As part of the analysis of the MSLT, a new measure, the daily average sleep tendency (DAST), was constructed to overcome the problems with data censoring of the classic MSLT analysis. The patients had significantly (p less than 0.001) higher daytime sleep tendency, even after drug discontinuation, than controls, a result that could neither be attributed to AED treatment nor to recent epileptic seizures or complicated epilepsy.

Anticonvulsants↗