Neuropsychological longitudinal study of patients with low-grade gliomas: Cognitive impairment.

This study is part of a longitudinal research program, in which patients diagnosed with low-grade gliomas (LGG: n = 13), as well as healthy controls (n = 13), were consecutively recruited and neuropsychologically followed for 7 years. The patients are followed up regardless of variations in treatment. A composite score is used (Global Deficit Score: GDS) included cognitive measures where at least five patients had a negative change: information processing speed, speed of naming, construction ability, verbal fluency, non-verbal thinking, and immediate non-verbal memory. The most important finding in this 7-year follow-up study is that two-thirds of the patients developed cognitive impairment. The remaining third of the patients showed stability in their cognitive ability and were still alive 17 years after diagnosis. Younger patients with tumors in the right frontal or posterior regions showed a more favorable development. Patients with frontal tumors and a declined GDS show also significant changes in executive functions. Given the limited number, no firm conclusions can be drawn regarding the impact of tumor localization. The impact of LGG on cognition and the survival time after diagnosis varies considerably between patients. However, most of the patients (69%) showed cognitive impairment during the seven years we followed them.

A life put on hold: adolescents' experiences of having an eating disorder in relation to social contexts outside the family.

BACKGROUND: As suffering from an eating disorder often entails restrictions on a person's everyday life, one can imagine that it is an important aspect of recovery to help young people learn to balance stressful demands and expectations in areas like the school environment and spare-time activities that include different forms of interpersonal relationships. PURPOSE: The aim of the present study was to investigate how adolescents with experience from a restrictive eating disorder describe their illness and their time in treatment in relation to social contexts outside the family. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This qualitative study is based on narratives of 15 adolescents with experience from outpatient treatment for eating disorders with a predominately restrictive symptomatology, recruited in collaboration with four specialized eating-disorder units. Data were explored through inductive thematic analysis. RESULTS: The adolescents' descriptions of their illness in relation to their social contexts outside the family follow a clear timeline that includes narratives about when and how the problem arose, time in treatment, and the process that led to recovery. Three main themes were found: 1) the problems emerging in everyday life (outside the family); 2) a life put on hold and 3) creating a new life context. CONCLUSION: Young people with eating disorders need to learn how to balance demands and stressful situations in life, and to grasp the confusion that often preceded their illness. How recovery progresses, and how the young people experience their life contexts after recovery, depends largely on the magnitude and quality of peer support and on how school and sports activities affect and are affected by the eating disorder.

Adding "Circle of Security - Parenting" to treatment as usual in three Swedish infant mental health clinics. Effects on parents' internal representations and quality of parent-infant interaction.

This study presents effects of adding Circle of Security-Parenting (COS-P) to an already established comprehensive therapeutic model for early parent-child intervention in three Swedish infant mental health (IMH) clinics. Parents' internal representations and quality of parent-infant interaction were studied in a clinical sample comprised of 52 parent-infant dyads randomly allocated to two comparable groups. One group consisted of 28 dyads receiving treatment as usual (TAU) supplemented with COS-P in a small group format, and another group of 24 dyads receiving TAU only. Assessments were made at baseline (T1), 6 months after inclusion (T2) and 12 months after inclusion (T3). Changes over time were explored in 42 dyads. In the COS-P group, the proportion of balanced representations, as assessed with Working Model of the Child Interview (WMCI), significantly increased between T1 and T3. Further, the proportion of emotionally available interactions, as assessed with Emotional Availability scales (EA), significantly increased over time in the COS-P group. Improvements in the TAU-group were close to significant. Limitations of the study are mainly related to the small sample size. Strength is the real world character of the study, where COS-P was implemented in a clinical context not otherwise adapted to research. We conclude by discussing the value of supplementing TAU with COS-P in IMH treatment.

Being me and being us - adolescents' experiences of treatment for eating disorders.

BACKGROUND: This qualitative study addresses adolescents' perception of treatment for eating disorders. The importance of involving parents in treatment of young people with eating disorders, especially young people with Anorexia Nervosa, is emphasized in a number of studies. Even so, this form of treatment does not work for everybody, not even within a limited diagnostic group. Previous research has revealed that many young people are not entirely satisfied with their treatment. However, there is a lack of knowledge concerning the perspectives of adolescents in outpatient treatment, whose treatment often involves family. The aim of the present study was to investigate how young people with experience from adolescent outpatient treatment for eating disorders, involving family-based and individual based interventions, perceive their time in treatment. METHODS: This study was conducted using a hermeneutic phenomenological approach. Fifteen participants were recruited in collaboration with four specialized eating disorder units and interviewed with the purpose to gather narratives. RESULTS: The analysis revealed that the adolescents sometimes felt more or less forced into treatment, and strong ambivalent feelings about if and how to participate in treatment permeated the adolescents' narratives. The common factors which emerged in the narratives were assembled under the two major themes: Having to involve family in treatment - in one way or another and Making progress in treatment - a matter of trust. CONCLUSIONS: It is of great importance to involve family in treatment in order to understand the problems of the adolescents in their context and be able to take advantage of the resource that parents constitute. However, in certain situations, it is necessary to prioritise individual treatment interventions so that instead of sorting out difficult family situations the therapist focuses on enhancing the young people's resilience, thus enabling them to tackle problematic situations in life.

Parents' assessment of parent-child interaction interventions--a longitudinal study in 101 families.

BACKGROUND: The aim of the study was to describe families with small children who participated in parent-child interaction interventions at four centres in Sweden, and to examine long term and short term changes regarding the parents' experience of parental stress, parental attachment patterns, the parents' mental health and life satisfaction, the parents' social support and the children's problems. METHODS: In this longitudinal study a consecutive sample of 101 families (94 mothers and 54 fathers) with 118 children (median age 3 years) was assessed, using self-reports, at the outset of the treatment (T1), six months later (T2) and 18 months after the beginning of treatment (T3). Analysis of the observed differences was carried out using Wilcoxon's Signed-Rank test and Cohen's d. RESULTS: The results from commencement of treatment showed that the parents had considerable problems in all areas examined. At the outset of treatment (T1) the mothers showed a higher level of problem load than the fathers on almost all scales. In the families where the children's problems have also been measured (children from the age of four) it appeared that they had problems of a nature and degree otherwise found in psychiatric populations. We found a clear general trend towards a positive development from T1 to T2 and this development was also reinforced from T2 to T3. Aggression in the child was one of the most common causes for contact. There were few undesired or unplanned interruptions of the treatment, and the attrition from the study was low. CONCLUSION: This study has shown that it is possible to reach mothers as well as fathers with parenting problems and to create an intervention program with very low dropout levels - which is of special importance for families with small children displaying aggressive behaviour. The parents taking part in this study showed clear improvement trends after six months and this development was reinforced a year later. This study suggests the necessity of clinical development and future research concerning the role of fathers in parent-child interaction interventions.