ABSTRACT
Sports and Physical Exercise Therapy in the Treatment of Mental Health Issues in Children and Adolescents Abstract: Mental disorders are among the most common chronic diseases in childhood and adolescence in Germany and worldwide. The health benefits of a physically active lifestyle during adolescence are well documented. Furthermore, a growing body of evidence suggests a positive impact of physical activity on mental health and emotional well-being. Longitudinal studies also show an association between physical activity and reduced risk of developing a mental disorder. Therefore, therapeutic exercise plays an important role in child and adolescent psychiatry. High-quality randomized-controlled trials are needed to substantiate the described effects.
Subject(s)
Mental Health , Sports , Child , Adolescent , Humans , Exercise , Sports/psychology , Life Style , Longitudinal StudiesABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE: Daytime urinary incontinence (DUI) is common in childhood. The aim of the study was to neurophysiologically analyse the central emotion processing in children with DUI. METHOD: In 20 children with DUI (mean age 8.1 years, 55 % male) and 20 controls (mean age 9.1 years, 75 % male) visual event-related potentials (ERPs) were recorded after presenting emotionally valent (80 neutral, 40 positive, and 40 negative) pictures from the International Affective Picture System (IAPS) as an oddball-paradigm. All children received a full organic and psychiatric assessment. RESULTS: Children with DUI did not differ significantly from controls regarding responses to emotional pictures in the frontal, central, and parietal regions and in the time intervals 250-450 ms, 450-650 ms, and 650-850 ms after stimulus onset. The patient group had more psychological symptoms and psychiatric comorbidities than the control group. CONCLUSIONS: EEG responses to emotional stimuli are not altered in children with DUI. Central emotion processing does not play a major role in DUI. Further research, including a larger sample size, a more homogeneous patient group (regarding subtype of DUI) or brain imaging techniques, could reveal more about the central processing in DUI.
