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Biomedical subjects

M O Tsaltas

Publications and source records attributed to M O Tsaltas.

5 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed1994

Clomipramine ameliorates adventitious movements and compulsions in prepubertal boys with autistic disorder and severe mental retardation.

In an open, nonblind clinical trial, clomipramine reduced adventitious movements and compulsions in five previously medicated prepubertal boys with autistic disorder and severe mental retardation. Poorly adapted rating scales, interrater variability, subject heterogeneity, different treatment histories, and environmental stresses confounded the assessment of treatment effects.

Autistic Disorder↗
PubMed1994

Changes in the treatment of abused children: a retrospective review of a practice.

Using the population of sexually abused children from three periods of my practice, I have described changes in my practice of play therapy over the past 30 years. These changes have come about in part due to the pioneering work of psychiatrists specializing in studies of development in children not designated as emotionally disturbed or mentally ill (Chess and Thomas, 1986; Greenspan, 1981; Winnicott, 1953, 1965, 1971) as well those who have described treatment techniques and theoretical constructs of the experience of traumatized children (Finkelhor and Browne, 1985; Terr, 1991). Because of these convincing works, I have been able to shorten treatment, and shift my goals from direct efforts at unconscious conflict resolution to the more indirect but more effective method of re-establishing maturational tracks through involvement of families, dialogue with children in multiple play techniques as well as words, and to plan ahead for these traumatized children. It remains to be seen what the eventual outcome of this change in treatment will be. Although I always ask families and children to keep in touch even by postcard, only about 20% of them do. Naturally, these are families that are doing well. I am not sure that this necessarily means the other 80% are not doing well but I simply do not know. Because all of these patients are known to one authority or another (police, Rape Centers, courts and Department of Welfare) it should be possible to plan long-term studies of treatment outcome at the time of the initial contact. It seems important enough to me to do this because betrayed trust has a very long lag time before its full effects may be seen in the adults these children become. Because there are so many cases of child abuse, defining the relative effectiveness and efficacy of different kinds of treatment could be useful in managing what is, in effect, a public health problem.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1976

Children of home dialysis patients.

Fifteen children of six families in which one parent was undergoing home dialysis were examined by the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, human figure drawings, and family interviews. All the children were found to be clinically depressed, and two thirds had a history of being referred by teachers to school counselors and psychiatrists for behavioral problems in school. Of these referred children, all showed disorders of psychomotor activity and reduced academic achievement. There was no clear-cut evidence that these children were depressed because of exposure to home dialysis per se. The most disturbed children seemed to be responding to depressed parents or to partial object loss. A controlled, prospective study is planned to clarify this question.

Achievement↗