A web-based psychological support program for caregivers of children with rare chronic diseases: a randomized controlled trial.

Background: Approximately 50% of rare diseases have symptom onset during childhood. A high level of nursing care and an often uncertain prognosis put caregivers of the affected children at high risk for psychological distress. At the same time, their caregivers have limited access to appropriate psychological care.

A web-based psychological support program for caregivers of children with cystic fibrosis: a pilot study.

Background: Parents caring for a child with Cystic Fibrosis (CF) are at high risk for psychological distress and have limited access to psychological care. Therefore, a web-based psychological support program for severely distressed parents of children with CF (WEP-CARE) was developed and evaluated for its feasibility and efficacy.

Methods: A clinical expert panel developed WEP-CARE based on principles of cognitive-behavioral therapy.

Somatoform respiratory disorders in children and adolescents-proposals for a practical approach to definition and classification.

Somatoform respiratory disorders represent conditions with dysfunctional breathing unexplained by structural abnormalities. This heterogeneous group includes disorders with neural dysregulation of respiration (vocal cord dysfunction) or with dysregulation of the respiratory pattern (hyperventilation, sighing dyspnea), psychogenic disorders such as unjustified anxiety of suffocation, and stereotype conditions such as throat clearing or habit cough. Many symptoms are nonspecific and largely overlap with respiratory disease symptoms of somatic etiology.

Body image in cystic fibrosis--development of a brief diagnostic scale.

For a number of reasons, body image is an important concept in behavioral medicine. First, it is known to be related to clinical phenomena such as poor self-esteem, depression, and anxiety. Second, body image has the potential to influence the patients' self-management and compliance motivation.