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V Guidetti

Publications and source records attributed to V Guidetti.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

Personality inventory for children and childhood migraine. A case-controlled study.

The personality inventory for children (PIC), which is similar in structure to the MMPI and hence free from subjective interpretation, is applicable to children from 6 to 16 years of age. We used it in 40 children with common migraine aged 8 to 14 years and in 40 controls comparable in age, sex, and socioeconomic status. Although the migraine subjects did not emerge as globally different from the controls, they presented significantly higher scores on the Somatic concern, Depression, and Anxiety scales, irrespective of sex. These results underline the value of PIC in the diagnostic assessment of childhood migraine.

Adolescent↗

Flunarizine and migraine in childhood. An evaluation of endocrine function.

Flunarizine was tested for prophylactic efficacy and for side effects in 10- to 13-year-old patients with severe migraine (greater than 2 attacks per month). The 13 preadolescents received a single 5-mg dose at night for 2 months. The attack frequency decreased significantly, and the effect was maintained over time. The endocrine status, investigated before and after treatment, showed no significant interference with pituitary, beta-pancreatic, or gonadal function.

Adolescent↗

The utilization of the Rorschach test in a case-controlled study.

The Rorschach test was administered to 58 children of normal intelligence aged 7-14 years with a history of common migraine of at least 12 months and to a group of controls matched for age, sex, and IQ. The Rorschach test was scored blindly. The migraine group was characterized by marked intellectual inhibition with poor school performance and low response rates; inhibition of psychomotor activity and aggressiveness, shown by content analysis and by the presence of kinesthetic shock; inhibition of affect (ratio M/sum C); ineffective use of mechanisms of defence against anxiety (F-); prevalence of phobic features and massive use of repression, indicated by the high rejection rate and shock at red colour. The differences from the controls were significant at the 0.01 level with regard to all items in the preadolescent age group and with regard to all items except kinesthetic shock in the migraine group as a whole. There was thus a definite difference between the migraine group and the controls, a difference that might depend on impairment of ego function and on recurrent experience of pain.

Adolescent↗

Responsiveness of the visual system in childhood migraine studied by means of VEPs.

We have tried to ascertain whether the increased visual evoked potential (VEP) amplitude found in adult migraineurs is present also in children with migraine. We investigated 43 children, 26 male and 17 female, with a mean age of 11.4 years, 24 with common and 19 with classic migraine, and compared them with a control group of 20 children, 11 male and 9 female, with a mean age of 9.7 years. Flash and pattern reversal VEPs were recorded in both groups, and the study was carried out in the pain-free interval between attacks. The children with migraine showed a significant (p less than 0.01) increase in VEP amplitude on flash stimulation but not on pattern reversal. There were no differences between classic and common migraine. The abnormal responsiveness of the visual system seems to be related to variations in light intensity rather than to spatial contrasts.

Adolescent↗

Upper limb movements in the emergence of object cognition.

Previous studies showed that 40% of fullterm newborns with "anterior plane hypotonia" (APH) neuromotor anomaly present retarded development of object cognition. To understand the possible motor dynamics of this retardation, we studied the principal upper limb movements in a group of normal newborns and in one of APH newborns, with and without stimulus. The total quantity of movement proved to be similar in the two groups but there were differences in the frequencies of the various types of movement, to the detriment in the APH subjects of the movements considered most relevant to object relations. These data underline the importance of the qualitative integrity of newborn movement to the emergence of object cognition.

Arm↗

Childhood headache risk: warning signs and symptoms present during the first six months of life.

In the history of children suffering from non-organic headache, the presence of periodic syndromes can often be found. In previous observations we ascertained that periodic syndromes are a common finding in children showing physical and behavioural characteristics of "hyperreactivity" in the first months of their lives. We have tried to verify, through a prospective study, whether children with "hyperreactivity" in the first months of life are particularly prone to develop periodic syndromes and/or non-organic headache. We have developed an appropriate test for the assessment of hyperreactivity in the first 6 months of life. We have isolated 183 hyperreactive subjects; 102 of them have been followed-up to an average age of 10.8 years, together with a control group of 80 subjects followed-up to an average age of 10.2 years. Of the 102 hyperreactive infants, 54 (52.9%) suffered from common migraine, versus 12 (15%) of the control group; 66 (64.5%) hyperreactive infants suffered from periodic syndrome, versus 10 (12.5%) of the control group. There was frequently a co-existence of migraine and periodic syndrome. It is thus possible to identify infants who are particularly prone to develop periodic syndromes and headache.

Abdomen↗

Psychological peculiarities in children with recurrent primary headache.

Thirty-five children with idiopathic headache (average age 10.2 years) were subjected to various examinations and a series of tests (WISC, Bender, Rorschach, Duss, "tree" and "family" tests) on the nature and characteristics of headache with a view to establishing possible psychological peculiarities. The sample was correlated with a random control group of 20 subjects (average age 10.4 years) undergoing all of the above tests except the Rorschach test. This showed a significant decrease in the "digit span" WISC subtest and in the Bender test with respect to normal population, and a drop in "digit span" and in picture completion subtests and in headache length in months. Feelings of being excluded from the family group, insecurity and repressed hostility towards the important figures, were significantly stronger in the headache patients group.

Adolescent↗

Outcome of juvenile headache in outpatients attending 23 Italian headache clinics. Italian Collaborative Study Group on Juvenile Headache (Società Italiana Neuropsichiatria Infantile [SINPI]).

A multicenter 3-year follow-up study was carried out on young patients with headache referred to tertiary headache centers or pediatric clinics. Three years after the first examination in 1993, 442 (of an original sample of 719) young outpatients with headache (226 females and 216 males) were re-examined. The diagnostic criteria of the International Headache Society (IHS) and those modified for migraine without aura by Winner et al were applied at both the baseline evaluation and the 3-year re-examination. At the follow-up, 290 children still had headache, 101 were in clinical remission, and 51 had dropped out. Using the current diagnostic criteria, only 46.2% of patients having migraine without aura, 50% of those having migraine with aura, and 35.3% of those suffering from migraine disorders which do not fulfill IHS criteria for migraine received the same diagnosis at the time of follow-up. The percentage of patients receiving a diagnosis of migraine without aura rose significantly when new modified criteria were used (60.5%), whereas a drop in the frequency of migraine disorders not fulfilling IHS criteria was observed at follow-up, both in patients with the diagnosis of migraine without aura at the first examination (4.6%) and in patients with migraine not always fulfilling IHS criteria at the first examination (6.2%). Among all patients who received this latter diagnosis at the first examination, it was possible to make a diagnosis of migraine with aura at the follow-up in 8.8% of cases and that of migraine without aura in 26.5%. No significant variations in the frequency of either episodic tension-type headache or chronic tension-type headache were found, with the exception of a slight decrease in the percentage of tension-type headache which did not fulfill IHS criteria, but the difference between the first examination and the follow-up values does not reach the level of statistical significance (5% versus 12%). As far as the evolution of migraine is concerned, 17.4% of patients with migraine were headache-free at the 3-year follow-up. In tension-type headache, the percentage of patients who were headache-free was particularly high in those with the episodic form (32.9%) and in those suffering from tension-type headache not fulfilling IHS criteria (29.1%). The majority of patients who had been diagnosed as having unclassifiable headache at the first examination received a correct diagnosis at the follow-up with the exception of one patient. As observed in adult patients, variations in the headache characteristics were also observed in children and adolescents (that is, migraine with aura can change to migraine without aura, or the latter can transform into episodic tension-type headache or chronic tension-type headache can change into the episodic form). This follow-up study was aimed at reaching a better understanding of headache disturbances in children and adolescents, examining, in particular, variations of headache with time in this stage of life.

Adolescent↗

Functional bent of central nervous system: neonatal hyperreactivity and developmental disorders. A 10-year follow-up study.

The relevance of newborn individuality to subsequent course of childhood has long been controversial. This study was designed to find out whether neonatal hyperreactivity influences signs and symptoms that appear in childhood. A reactivity test administered to 1184 healthy term newborns identified two populations: hyperreactives and normoreactives. Ninety-four hyperreactives and 80 normoreactives were followed up periodically to the age of 10 years. Hyperreactives had a significantly higher frequency of developmental disorders. Their parents' histories showed a higher frequency of the same disorders than that of normoreactives' parents. The importance of heredity in the genesis of hyperreactivity implies that hyperreactivity depends on the nervous system.

Child↗

Headache and epilepsy in childhood: analysis of a series of 620 children.

The relationships between various types of headache and epilepsy were investigated in a sample of 620 children aged 2 to 16 years with special reference to the frequency and types of epilepsy, their distribution over the types of headache, the frequency of familiarity of convulsions and epilepsy by headache type and the frequency of epileptiform EEGs in headache-free intervals. Data were correlated with those of a control group of 100 suffering from Recurrent Respiratory Infection Syndrome (RRIS). Children with and without epilepsy were compared in respect of the course of headache in order to elicit any differences. Epilepsy was definitely more common in headache patients than in the control group, and so was a family history of epilepsy and convulsions. The frequency of epilepsy was uniform across the various types of headache, migrainous or not. The frequency of epileptiform EEGs was high (20%) compared to the control group, but was not an index of severity for headache, except in cases with multifocal EEG abnormalities. Neither the presence of epilepsy nor the frequency of epileptiform changes significantly effect the migraine attack rate.

Adolescent↗

Random dominance and childhood migraine: a new marker? A controlled study of laterality in children with migraine.

We assessed various aspects of laterality by direct observation in children with migraine and peer controls, with special reference to the frequency of random dominance. This frequency varied with the test battery used, being lower on the Edinburgh and Oldfield inventories which measure hand-use preference, and higher on the Handedness index and Spontaneous gestural index, which explore "genetic laterality". Random dominance would seem to be a new marker of migraine in childhood, for use alongside the hyperreactivity marker found in a previous study.

Adolescent↗