[Personal experience of adolescents with a brain-injured parent: preliminary study]. / Vécu des adolescents dont l'un des parents est cérébrolésé: étude préliminaire.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the impact of brain injury of a parent on adolescent behavioural and emotional symptoms and personal experience. PATIENTS AND SETTING: Eleven adolescents from 13 to 18 years old with a brain-injured parent with cognitive impairment. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Multiple case report. Assessment of anxiety and depression on the R-CMAS scale and the BDI. Qualitative analysis of a semi-structured interview and of the family drawing. RESULTS: Pathological scores on the R-CMAS scale involved 36% of the cases and the BDI, 45%. Impulsivity involved 36% of cases, difficulties in learning at school 73%, and somatic symptoms 45%. Feeling of loneliness involved 64% of cases and difficulty for the adolescent to speak about feelings in the family 82%. The symbolic position of the brain-injured parent was maintained in all cases. In 45% of cases, the parent was unable to recognize the adolescent, and in 55%, some characteristics of the adolescent were linked to the illness of the parent. A feeling of insecurity pervaded all cases. The family drawing revealed abnormalities in the bodily representation of the family members, especially a lack of hands or a representation of amputated hands in 91% of the cases and unsteadiness of the family members, also represented as ghosts in 82% of cases. CONCLUSION: Living with a brain-injured parent increases depression disorders, a feeling of loneliness and insecurity in adolescents. The inability for the adolescent to recognize parent's personality and the identification with caracteristics of the parent due to the illness is worrying. Abnormalities in the bodily representation of the family members and their unsteadiness are characteristic signs.

[Personal experience of children with a brain injured parent: preliminary study]. / Vécu des enfants dont l'un des parents est cérébrolésé : étude préliminaire.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the impact of the brain injury of a parent on his child's behavioural and emotional symptoms and personal experience. PATIENTS AND SETTING: Nineteen children from 6 to 12 years old at the time of the research having a brain-injured parent living at home and with cognitive impairments. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Case report. Assessment of a questionnaire measures of anxiety, the R-CMAS scale. Qualitative analysis of a semi-structured interview and of the family drawing. RESULTS: Four children (21%) presented pathological anxiety assessed by the R-CMAS scale. The analysis of the semi-structured interview showed that 16 children had a representation of the brain injury. The symbolic place of the brain-injured parent was maintained for all the children and one presented impulsive behaviours. The family drawing analysis showed the lack of relational interaction between the family members in 16 cases (84%). Three children (15%) represented the real disability, and 17 (89%) abnormalities in the bodies' pictorial representation of the personages. These abnormalities concerned the brain-injured parent and the other members of the family. A characteristic sign was the lack of hands or the representation of amputee hands in 14 cases (73%). Another one was the unsteadiness of family members, who were also represented as ghosts or "in the air" in 13 cases (68%). CONCLUSION: Children seem adapted and they have few emotional and behavioural disorders. But there was a strong impact of the disability of the parent on their personal experience and on their perception of "the family body".