ABSTRACT
A 3-year old boy was referred to a paediatric psychiatry out-patient clinic for major disorders consisting of hyperphagia, intolerance to frustrations and instability since the age of one year, and pica (i.e. the indigestion of non-edible substances) since the age of two years. These symptoms developed in a context of greatly disturbed parent-child relations, predominantly made of ambivalence and inability to define limits and interdictions. Conversations with the family are restoring the parental roles and improving the child's symptoms.
Subject(s)
Mother-Child Relations , Pica/psychology , Child, Preschool , Humans , Male , Pica/etiology , Pica/therapyABSTRACT
A new type of anxiety state has recently been identified: the panic attack. This condition is qualitatively distinct from other anxiety disturbances and its treatment is different. Sodium lactate seems to play an essential role in the triggering of panic attacks through the intermediary of catabolic, physicochemical mechanisms or by alteration of adrenergic neurotransmission. Anxiety may be autonomised into two sub-groups, based on the effects of psychotropic drugs: phobic and anxiety states. The presence or absence of panic attacks is essential as it has diagnostic and therapeutic implications: M.A.D.I. or tricyclic antidepressors have a specific action on panic attacks but are ineffective on anticipatory, chronic, phobic or other forms of anxiety. Which are improved by benzodiazepines which; themselves, have very little effect on panic attacks.
Subject(s)
Anxiety Disorders/classification , Fear/drug effects , Panic/drug effects , Antidepressive Agents/therapeutic use , Anxiety Disorders/drug therapy , Humans , Lactates/metabolism , Lactates/physiology , Lactic Acid , Panic/physiologyABSTRACT
Anxiety has been the object of many therapeutic attempts, often in the absence of well-founded indications and often yielding inconclusive results. We obtained good results in two adolescents for whom we used a new classification system based upon the differential action of psychotropic drugs on anxiety. More specifically, this approach singled out the panic disorder by demonstrating that patients with this disorder react specifically to antidepressant drugs. More extensive studies are clearly needed to confirm that these results, well established for adult patients, also apply to an adolescent population.
