ABSTRACT
The results are focussed on the three most important wishes and fears of 247 adolescents aged 14 years whose development is being followed from birth in the framework of the Rostock Longitudinal Study. The peace/war problem occupies a central position in the thinking of adolescents today. However there are no indications that the individual perception of and reflection on the nuclear threat impair psychic development nor is there any relation between political fears and the anxiety trait. The extension of personal wishes and fears to broader fields of significance and the facing up to world problems constitute signs of a maturing personality and a widened consciousness of reality. Psychic coping of such global fears will be facilitated the more the individual gains personal experience of the effectiveness of peace policies and activities--not least by making his/her own contribution.
Subject(s)
Attitude , Nuclear Warfare , Personality Development , Adaptation, Psychological , Adolescent , Female , Germany, East , Humans , MaleABSTRACT
In a randomized prospective study 32 patients received either alinidine or a placebo for the first five postoperative days after coronary bypass surgery. The purpose of the study was to investigate the prophylactic antiarrhythmic properties of alinidine on supraventricular tachyarrhythmias (svt), which occur with incidence after open heart surgery. There was no significant difference in pretherapeutical parameters between the two groups. Eleven out of sixteen control patients (69%) and none of the patients treated with alinidine had svt. All arrhythmias occurred in the first three postoperative days and required medical treatment. Even after alinidine was stopped, patients in this group did not experience arrhythmias. The mean systolic blood pressure in the treatment group was 113 +/- 13 mmHg, in the control group it was 119 +/- 16 mmHg. The mean heart rate tended to be lower in the alinidine group (82 +/- 12 beats min-1 91 +/- 21 beats min-1. In 1/16 patients the alinidine treatment was stopped due to marked hypotension (less than 90 mmHg) and bradycardia (less than beats min-1). Two other patients in this group had short periods of mild bradycardia (less than 60 beats min-1) which was tolerated well. Additional medical treatment was not needed. In this study prophylactic treatment with alinidine proved to be highly effective in preventing postoperative arrhythmias following myocardial revascularisation.
Subject(s)
Anti-Arrhythmia Agents/therapeutic use , Clonidine/analogs & derivatives , Coronary Artery Bypass , Heart Rate/drug effects , Tachycardia, Supraventricular/prevention & control , Blood Pressure/drug effects , Clonidine/therapeutic use , Female , Humans , Male , Middle Aged , Postoperative Complications/prevention & control , Prospective Studies , Random AllocationABSTRACT
The authors discuss the aftereffects of brain injuries in infancy and the relationships of these aftereffects with the social environment of a child. Examinations of the intellectual development and motoricity, carried out in 50 children, have revealed the most drastic delay of the intellectual and motor development in the children with clinically manifest injuries, living in socially unfavourable conditions. A favourable social environment promotes a compensation of benign injuries of the brain.
Subject(s)
Adaptation, Psychological , Birth Injuries/psychology , Brain Injuries/psychology , Intelligence , Neurocognitive Disorders/etiology , Birth Injuries/complications , Brain Injuries/complications , Child , Humans , Risk FactorsABSTRACT
The Order on Military Medical Expertise dated 27 August 1975 lists the brain-organic psychosyndrome among the diagnoses restricting fitness for military service. Who gives the diagnosis, and who decides on the degree of fitness? Practice shows that in this respect there is considerable uncertainty. Attention is drawn to the obligations the neuropsychiatrist has to fulfill vis à vis the registration board.
Subject(s)
Military Medicine , Neurocognitive Disorders/diagnosis , Adolescent , Adult , Brain Damage, Chronic/diagnosis , Brain Injuries/complications , Eligibility Determination , Epilepsy, Post-Traumatic/diagnosis , Germany, East , Humans , MaleSubject(s)
Brain Injuries/psychology , Neurocognitive Disorders/psychology , Adolescent , Adult , Atrophy , Brain Damage, Chronic/psychology , Cerebral Cortex/pathology , Child , Electroencephalography , Female , Follow-Up Studies , Humans , Intelligence , Learning Disabilities/psychology , Male , Personality Development , Pneumoencephalography , Tomography, X-Ray ComputedABSTRACT
The long-term control of the developmental process of 16 children after an apallic syndrome shows that the remaining neurological functional disturbances are the more severe, the older the patients were at the time of the accident, while the disturbance of the intellectual development is the more pronounced, the younger the children were. The clinical picture of the cerebro-organic psychosyndrome changes in the course of the development. Also in case of a good regression of the neurological functional disturbances and the possibility of a further attendance of a normal school, the patients will often no more be able to meet the requirements of an independent conduct of life later, similar to the patient with injuries of the frontal lobe of the brain.
Subject(s)
Brain Injuries/psychology , Child Development , Adolescent , Body Height , Body Weight , Child , Child, Preschool , Cognition Disorders/psychology , Humans , Intelligence , Learning Disabilities/psychology , Motor Skills , Prognosis , Psychomotor Disorders/psychology , Social AdjustmentABSTRACT
The data given in the literature about frequency and relative importance of diagnostic criteria for children with cerebral lesions show considerable differences and so do, as a consequence, diagnosing practice and epidemiological statements. This study aims at weighting the determing factors of a diagnosis and ascretining their interrelations and the associated influence on the psychic-mental development. In a total of 279 six-year-old risk and control children eight criteria regarding brain damage were recorded. The conclusive results give evidence of the influence exerted by organic conditions on the child's development and of the possibility of objectification by common methods. There is no justifiable alternative to a primarily organic basis of the diagnosis of infantile brain damage.
Subject(s)
Brain Damage, Chronic/diagnosis , Child Development , Brain Damage, Chronic/psychology , Child , Diagnosis, Differential , Follow-Up Studies , Humans , RiskABSTRACT
Seventeen children, who had sustained craniocerebral traumata with posttraumatic apallic syndromes, were examined electroencephalographically for an average period of six years. Until incipient clinical remission of the apallic syndrome, the electroencephalographic results correlated essentially with the clinical picture; later on, there was observed only a relatively loose correlation between the electroencephalogram and the neurological or psychic condition. Despite serious and irreversible brain damage, complete normalization of the electroencephalogram could be observed in individual cases.
Subject(s)
Brain Injuries/diagnosis , Electroencephalography , Epilepsy, Post-Traumatic/diagnosis , Adolescent , Brain Damage, Chronic/diagnosis , Child , Child, Preschool , Evoked Potentials , Follow-Up Studies , HumansABSTRACT
A comparison is made between the intellectual development and school performance of children suffering from posttraumatic attacks and children who suffered brain traumas of comparable severity but no attacks afterwards. Retarded intellectual development is comparatively frequent in children suffering severe and medium brain traumas, but clearly more frequent in children showing posttraumatic attacks as opposed to those not experiencing these late complications.
Subject(s)
Brain Damage, Chronic/psychology , Epilepsy, Post-Traumatic/psychology , Personality Development , Adolescent , Child , Child, Preschool , Female , Follow-Up Studies , Humans , Infant , Intelligence , MaleABSTRACT
Our studies show that the special features in the psychic development of encephalopaths showing normal intelligence consist in delayed motor, intellectual and educational progress. While motor retardation is reduced with age, as a result of such factors as rhythmical and psychomotor musico-therapy, individual intelligence test results drop more frequently at school age. The drop is less marked in students attending special classes, although they go back to their original schools after grade 4. The trend toward deterioration in intellectual development is reduced with age, i.e. when educational progress as encouraged by society, slows down. Despite their normal performance with regard to intelligence these students markedly lag behind their healthy contemporaries as far as performance at school is concerned.
Subject(s)
Brain Damage, Chronic/diagnosis , Child Development , Intelligence , Adolescent , Adult , Child , Child, Preschool , Education, Special , Follow-Up Studies , Humans , Neurocognitive Disorders/diagnosisABSTRACT
The authors deal with such psychic factors as weaknesses in concentration, reading and spelling which are to a major degree responsible for failure at school. These factors often occur in combination and may indicate early brain damage, in complex interaction with milieu conditions. Ample evidence of this is given in a literature survey. Principles of concentration training and a diagnostic verification procedure are then outlined, which have been derived from an analysis of attention requirements made at school. A therapy for reading and spelling weaknesses is dealt with, followed by a presentation of the results of training and catamneses. Using the method of Kossow mistakes were reduced by 78 percent and spelling marks improved considerably, after the children had returned to their original schools. In conclusion information is given on future projects for better assistance and prevention in the case of reading and spelling weaknesses at the elementary stage.
Subject(s)
Brain Damage, Chronic/diagnosis , Learning Disabilities/diagnosis , Neurocognitive Disorders/diagnosis , Child , Child Development , Education, Special , HumansABSTRACT
The authors present a factor analysis of 49 psychic and physical peculiarities found in 294 children in creches, most of them high-risk children; these were perinatologically classified at the time of birth, and an examination was performed by neuropsychiatrists and a follow-up clinical and psychological examination made, at the age of 2.0-2.3 years. The following two problems were of interest: 1. Can psychosyndromes be detected in creche children and, if so; 2. Does the psychosyndrome obtained through factor analysis contain vegetative symptoms? Results - The peculiarities can be grouped as follows: (table; see text) This is the first time that the existence of a pre-school chronic psychosyndrome has been detected using a multivariate method. Its basic structure is as described by Göllnitz. A discussion follows of its position within the symptom variability in damaged and disturbed children, and of rough brain localization analogies.
Subject(s)
Brain Damage, Chronic/diagnosis , Child Behavior Disorders/diagnosis , Neurocognitive Disorders/diagnosis , Brain Damage, Chronic/psychology , Child Behavior Disorders/psychology , Child, Preschool , Humans , Neurocognitive Disorders/psychology , PsychometricsABSTRACT
The administration, in a double blind experiment, of piracetam to two homogeneous groups of 32 and 34 eight- to twelve-year-old brain-injured special education children lacking normal mental ability, where the daily doses administered for a period of thirteen weeks were 3 tablets or 1.2 g (administered to second and third graders) and 5 tablets or 2.0 g (administered to fourth graders), respectively, did not produce a lasting effect upon the capacity to acquire and apply knowledge, the concentration power, the proficiency level, and the behavior shown by pupils during and out of school hours. On the other hand, there was observed, in patients receiving placebos, a nonsignificant tendency toward improvement in physical well-being, so that the effect produced by the drug may here be considered to be a negative one.
Subject(s)
Brain Damage, Chronic/drug therapy , Piracetam/therapeutic use , Pyrrolidinones/therapeutic use , Attention , Brain Damage, Chronic/psychology , Child , Clinical Trials as Topic , Female , Humans , Male , Social AdjustmentABSTRACT
Long-time follow-up examinations of 196 children, who had been suffering from severe and moderately severe cerebral traumata, gave abundant proof of the view that neurological disorders occurring at the age of childhood are characterized by a positive development of the disease, a view that is held by all authors. Cerebral ailments characterized by attacks usually manifest themselves within one year after the accident. The younger the children at the time of accident, the higher the number of posttraumatic diseases characterized by attacks. Children with convulsive phenomena in the acute posttraumatic phase usually show a greater tendency toward later diseases characterized by attacks. Every fourth child with initial convulsions and every seventh child without such an early symptomatology suffered from attacks in the further course of disease. Four out of 32 children were, in spite of careful treatment, not free from attacks after 10 years from the accident. The younger a child is at the time of accident the more unfavorable is the prognosis as regards personality development, intelligence, and scholastic records. Also, there is a clear dependence upon the severity of the cerebral trauma. Most pronounced permanent handicaps were observed in young children with severe cerebral traumata. A posttraumatic ailment characterized by attacks tends to worsen any prognosis.
Subject(s)
Brain Damage, Chronic/etiology , Brain Injuries/complications , Adolescent , Brain Concussion/complications , Child , Child, Preschool , Epilepsy, Post-Traumatic/etiology , Humans , Infant , Intellectual Disability/etiology , Intelligence , Prognosis , Skull Fractures/complicationsABSTRACT
Within the framework of a large-scale medical and pedagogical experiment conducted at Rostock, two special education classes for second graders were set up at the start of the 1965/66 school year in an attempt to prevent children with cerebral lesions from failing to pass courses already in the lower grades at elementary schools. As a result of this experiment, it was decided to start a school for special education children, and this school now has two parallel classes each for second, third, and fourth graders as well as one additional class in which pupils are prepared for the fifth normal education school grade. Psychological tests made as part of a longitudinal study in which 48 children who had been to this school from 1965, 1966, and 1967 were included and which spread over years including the 1971/72 school years, showed an improvement in motor development with slightly retarded intellectual development and unchanged lack of concentration power. Average attainments in the various subjects improved while pupils were attending special education classes and did not, after reintegration of such children into normal schools (fifth grade), drop below the general level of proficiency.
Subject(s)
Brain Damage, Chronic , Child Behavior Disorders , Education, Special , Achievement , Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity , Child , Germany, East , Humans , Motor Skills , Psychological TestsSubject(s)
Brain Injuries/rehabilitation , Adolescent , Child , Child, Preschool , Female , Follow-Up Studies , Humans , Infant , Intelligence , Male , Prognosis , Social AdjustmentABSTRACT
The hypothesis of a general dislike of school and learning aversion in children with reading and spelling disability could not be confirmed. As far as the attitude to the subjects and to the teachers, particularly to the teachers of German, is concerned no deviation from the norm generally existed. The inclination towards lingual subjects is lower than in pupils attending polytechnic high schools. The contrast between frequent behavioural disorders in school on the one hand, and the general positive attitude towards school is interpreted as a appetency-aversion conflict. The dominance of appetency is caused by the favourable social and pedagogic conditions in socialist society and is regarded as a prerequisite of successful therapy.
Subject(s)
Attitude , Dyslexia , Language Disorders , Learning , Humans , Personality , WritingABSTRACT
The hypothesis that the secondary symptoms of legasthenia can be derived in a linear and causal way from the primary symptoms is investigated. This study is based on data from the patients' history, diagnosis, therapy, and catamnesis. It is shown, that behavioural and adaptability disturbances are for the major part of prelegasthenic character but may become more pronounced by the manifestation of the primary symptoms. The parallel course of primary and so-called secondary symptoms with different times of manifestation is discussed as a conceptional model. Furthermore, the much less fully authenticated conceptional model based on findings in a childrens' neuropsychiatric clinic, which claims the existence of genuine secondary symptoms in a causal relationship to the primary symptoms, is not put into dispute.
