Psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) have been hypothesized to emerge in the context of neural networks instability. To explore this hypothesis in children, we applied a graph theory approach to ...examine connectivity in neural networks in the resting-state EEG in 35 children with PNES, 31 children with other functional neurological symptoms (but no PNES), and 75 healthy controls.
The networks were extracted from Laplacian-transformed time series by a coherence connectivity estimation method.
Children with PNES (vs. controls) showed widespread changes in network metrics: increased global efficiency (gamma and beta bands), increased local efficiency (gamma band), and increased modularity (gamma and alpha bands). Compared to controls, they also had higher levels of autonomic arousal (e.g., lower heart variability); more anxiety, depression, and stress on the Depression Anxiety and Stress Scales; and more adverse childhood experiences on the Early Life Stress Questionnaire. Increases in network metrics correlated with arousal. Children with other functional neurological symptoms (but no PNES) showed scattered and less pronounced changes in network metrics.
The results indicate that children with PNES present with increased activation of neural networks coupled with increased physiological arousal. While this shift in functional organization may confer a short-term adaptive advantage-one that facilitates neural communication and the child's capacity to respond self-protectively in the face of stressful life events-it may also have a significant biological cost. It may predispose the child's neural networks to periods of instability-presenting clinically as PNES-when the neural networks are faced with perturbations in energy flow or with additional demands.
Aim
Children and adolescents with functional neurological disorder (FND) present with physical impairment and mental health comorbidities. Specialist physiotherapy programs for treating FND have been ...developed over the last two decades. This article reports outcome data from three cohorts of children treated with a multidisciplinary rehabilitation intervention – the Mind–Body Program – in which a psychologically informed physiotherapy intervention, known as the wellness approach to physiotherapy, was a key component.
Methods
For three cohorts of children (n = 57, n = 60 and n = 25, respectively) treated in the Mind–Body Program, data about functional impairment and mental health concerns were collected at presentation and at follow‐up (4 years, 12 months and 18 months, respectively).
Results
Outcome data show that FND symptoms resolved in 54/57 (95%), 51/60 (85%) and 22/25 (88%) of children in the three cohorts, and that 31/57 (61%), 32/60 (53%) and 13/25 (52%) of children returned to full health and to full‐time school attendance. Changes in Global Assessment of Function (GAF) were significant (t(54) = 21.60, P < 0.001; t(55) = 9.92, P < 0.001; t(24) = 6.51, P < 0.001). Outcomes were less favourable for children with chronic FND symptoms at presentation; those whose comorbid mental health disorders or other (comorbid) functional somatic symptoms did not resolve; and those who subsequently developed chronic mental health problems.
Conclusions
Implementation of a multidisciplinary rehabilitation intervention – with psychologically informed physiotherapy as one of the key treatment components – resulted in resolution of FND symptoms and return to health and well‐being in the large majority of patients.
Purpose of Review
Functional neurological disorder (FND) is a multi-network brain disorder that encompasses a broad range of neurological symptoms. FND is common in pediatric practice. It places ...substantial strains on children, families, and health care systems. Treatment begins at assessment, which requires the following: the
medical
task of making the diagnosis, the
interpersonal
task of engaging the child and family so that they feel heard and respected, the
communication
task of communicating and explaining the diagnosis, and the
logistical
task of organizing treatment.
Recent Findings
Over the past decade, three treatment approaches—Retraining and Control Therapy (ReACT), other cognitive-behavioral therapies, and multidisciplinary rehabilitation—have been evaluated in the USA, Canada, and Australia. Of children treated in such programs, 63 − 95% showed full resolution of FND symptoms. The common thread across the programs is their biopsychosocial approach—consideration of biological, psychological, relational, and school-related factors that contribute to the child’s clinical presentation.
Summary
Current research strongly supports a biopsychosocial approach to pediatric FND and provides a foundation for a stepped approach to treatment. Stepped care is initially tailored to the needs of the individual child (and family) based on the pattern and severity of FND presentation. The level of care and type of intervention may then be adjusted to consider the child’s response, over time, to treatment or treatment combinations. Future research is needed to confirm effective treatment targets, to inform the development of stepped care, and to improve methodologies that can assess the efficacy of stepped-care interventions.
The goal of this open access book is to develop an approach to clinical health care ethics that is more accessible to, and usable by, health professionals than the now-dominant approaches that ...focus, for example, on the application of ethical principles. The book elaborates the view that health professionals have the emotional and intellectual resources to discuss and address ethical issues in clinical health care without needing to rely on the expertise of bioethicists. The early chapters review the history of bioethics and explain how academics from outside health care came to dominate the field of health care ethics, both in professional schools and in clinical health care. The middle chapters elaborate a series of concepts, drawn from philosophy and the social sciences, that set the stage for developing a framework that builds upon the individual moral experience of health professionals, that explains the discontinuities between the demands of bioethics and the experience and perceptions of health professionals, and that enables the articulation of a full theory of clinical ethics with clinicians themselves as the foundation. Against that background, the first of three chapters on professional education presents a general framework for teaching clinical ethics; the second discusses how to integrate ethics into formal health care curricula; and the third addresses the opportunities for teaching available in clinical settings. The final chapter, "Empowering Clinicians", brings together the various dimensions of the argument and anticipates potential questions about the framework developed in earlier chapters.
The current study examines patterns of attachment/self-protective strategies and rates of unresolved loss/trauma in children and adolescents presenting to a multidisciplinary gender service. ...Fifty-seven children and adolescents (8.42-15.92 years; 24 birth-assigned males and 33 birth-assigned females) presenting with gender dysphoria participated in structured attachment interviews coded using dynamic-maturational model (DMM) discourse analysis. The children with gender dysphoria were compared to age- and sex-matched children from the community (non-clinical group) and a group of school-age children with mixed psychiatric disorders (mixed psychiatric group). Information about adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), mental health diagnoses, and global level of functioning was also collected. In contrast to children in the non-clinical group, who were classified primarily into the normative attachment patterns (A1-2, B1-5, and C1-2) and who had low rates of unresolved loss/trauma, children with gender dysphoria were mostly classified into the high-risk attachment patterns (A3-4, A5-6, C3-4, C5-6, and A/C) (χ
= 52.66;
< 0.001) and had a high rate of unresolved loss/trauma (χ
= 18.64;
< 0.001). Comorbid psychiatric diagnoses (
= 50; 87.7%) and a history of self-harm, suicidal ideation, or symptoms of distress were also common. Global level of functioning was impaired (range 25-95/100; mean = 54.88;
= 15.40; median = 55.00). There were no differences between children with gender dysphoria and children with mixed psychiatric disorders on attachment patterns (χ
= 2.43;
= 0.30) and rates of unresolved loss and trauma (χ
= 0.70;
= 0.40).
analyses showed that lower SES, family constellation (a non-traditional family unit), ACEs-including maltreatment (physical abuse, sexual abuse, emotional abuse, neglect, and exposure to domestic violence)-increased the likelihood of the child being classified into a high risk attachment pattern. Akin to children with other forms of psychological distress, children with gender dysphoria present in the context of multiple interacting risk factors that include at-risk attachment, unresolved loss/trauma, family conflict and loss of family cohesion, and exposure to multiple ACEs.
Pain is a signal of danger, and danger activates the attachment system. When a parent responds to a child’s pain with appropriate protection and comfort, more often than not, the pain resolves. But ...what happens in families when a child’s pain becomes chronic and continues to signal a danger that has long passed? This study explored patterns of attachment in 48 children and adolescents with chronic functional pain and 48 healthy controls using structured attachment interviews. Patterns of attachment were identified using the Dynamic Maturational Model of Attachment. Compared to controls, children and adolescents with chronic functional pain were classified into at-risk patterns of attachment (χ2 = 76.4, df = 2, p < .001) and had higher rates of unresolved loss and trauma (χ2 = 10.8, df = 1, p = .001), suggesting a long-standing history of relational stress and the disruption of nurturing relationships. The findings suggest that the quality of attachment relationships contribute to the development and maintenance of chronic functional pain. Ongoing anxiety within the attachment relationship, combined with unresolved loss and trauma, may function much like catastrophising, contributing to chronic functional pain by activating the body’s arousal systems. The assessment process for chronic functional pain should include a family assessment to identify ruptures in attachment relationships, as well as unresolved loss and trauma events that need to be addressed through family interventions or individual therapy.
Psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) – time-limited disturbances of consciousness and motor-sensory control, not accompanied by ictal activity on electroencephalogram (EEG) – are best ...conceptualized as atypical neurophysiological responses to emotional distress, physiological stressors and danger. Patients and families find the diagnosis of PNES difficult to understand; the transition from neurology (where the diagnosis is made) to mental health services (to which patients are referred for treatment) can be a bumpy one. This study reports how diagnostic formulations constructed for 60 consecutive children and adolescents with PNES were used to inform both the explanations about PNES that were given to them and their families and the clinical interventions that were used to help patients gain control over PNES. Families were able to accept the diagnosis of PNES and engage in treatment when it was explained how emotional distress, illness and states of high arousal could activate atypical defence responses in the body and brain – with PNES being an unwanted by-product of this process. Patients and their families made good use of therapeutic interventions. A total of 75% of children/adolescents (45/60) regained normal function and attained full-time return to school. Global Assessment of Functioning scores increased from 41 to 67 (t(54) = 10.09; p < .001). Outcomes were less favourable in children/adolescents who presented with chronic PNES and in those with a chronic, comorbid mental health disorder that failed to resolve with treatment. The study highlights that prompt diagnosis, followed by prompt multidisciplinary assessment, engagement, and treatment, achieves improved outcomes in children/adolescents with PNES.
Psychogenic non-epileptic seizures (PNES) are a nonspecific, umbrella category that is used to collect together a range of atypical neurophysiological responses to emotional distress, physiological ...stressors and danger. Because PNES mimic epileptic seizures, children and adolescents with PNES usually present to neurologists or to epilepsy monitoring units. After a comprehensive neurological evaluation and a diagnosis of PNES, the patient is referred to mental health services for treatment. This study documents the diagnostic formulations – the clinical formulations about the probable neurophysiological mechanisms – that were constructed for 60 consecutive children and adolescents with PNES who were referred to our Mind-Body Rehabilitation Programme for treatment. As a heuristic framework, we used a contemporary reworking of Janet’s dissociation model: PNES occur in the context of a destabilized neural system and reflect a release of prewired motor programmes following a functional failure in cognitive-emotional executive control circuitry. Using this framework, we clustered the 60 patients into six different subgroups: (1) dissociative PNES (23/60; 38%), (2) dissociative PNES triggered by hyperventilation (32/60; 53%), (3) innate defence responses presenting as PNES (6/60; 10%), (4) PNES triggered by vocal cord adduction (1/60; 2%), (5) PNES triggered by activation of the valsalva manoeuvre (1/60; 1.5%) and (6) PNES triggered by reflex activation of the vagus (2/60; 3%). As described in the companion article, these diagnostic formulations were used, in turn, both to inform the explanations of PNES that we gave to families and to design clinical interventions for helping the children and adolescents gain control of their PNES.
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