The mental health profiles of pediatric organ transplant recipients.

Background: Solid organ transplantation is the indicated treatment for children with end-stage organ failure. Little is known about the impact of organ transplantation on pediatric transplant recipients' mental health. Symptoms of medical procedure and generalized anxiety, post-traumatic stress, and depression may emerge, despite the successful restoration of organ function.

Self-reported physical activity and lack of association with health-related quality of life in a pediatric solid-organ transplant population.

Background: Physical activity (PA) has been shown to have benefits, including improving health-related quality of life (HRQOL). However, there are few and conflicting studies assessing PA and its relationship with HRQOL in a pediatric solid-organ transplant (SOT) population. The aim of this study was to assess whether overall HRQOL was associated with PA and to determine whether that association was independent of other baseline and contemporaneous clinical and demographic indicators.

Post-traumatic stress as a determinant of quality of life in pediatric solid-organ transplant recipients.

Living with end-stage organ failure is associated with an accumulation of traumatic medical events, and despite recovery after solid-organ transplantation (SOT), many children continue to exhibit lower quality of life (QOL). Few studies have examined the relationship between post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and QOL among pediatric SOT recipients. We conducted a retrospective, cross-sectional review of 61 pediatric SOT recipients (12 heart, 30 kidney, and 19 liver) to evaluate the association of PTSD with self-reported QOL.

A Comparison of Maternal versus Paternal Nonverbal Behavior During Child Pain.

Parental behavior plays a significant role in children's pain response. Prior research has found generally no differences between mothers' and fathers' verbal behavior during child pain. This study compared mothers' and fathers' nonverbal behavior during child pain.

"He says, she says": a comparison of fathers' and mothers' verbal behavior during child cold pressor pain.

Unlabelled: Mothers' behavior has a powerful impact on child pain. Maternal attending talk (talk focused on child pain) is associated with increased child pain whereas maternal non-attending talk (talk not focused on child pain) is associated with decreased child pain. The present study compared mothers' and fathers' verbal behavior during child pain.

Behavioral interventions for sleep problems in children with autism spectrum disorders: current findings and future directions.

Objective: To examine behavioral interventions for sleep problems in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD).

Methods: A systematic review evaluating all published studies examining the effectiveness of behavioral treatment of sleep problems in children with ASD is presented.

Results: Based on the Chambless criteria for treatment efficacy, both standard extinction and scheduled awakenings met criteria for possibly efficacious interventions for sleep problems in children with ASD.

Case study: A case-series evaluation of a behavioral sleep intervention for three children with autism and primary insomnia.

Objective: To assess the effectiveness of a manualized multi-component behavioral sleep intervention for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and primary insomnia.

Methods: Three children (2 males and 1 female, aged 8-9 years) participated. The intervention consisted of a treatment handbook for parents; a distance treatment approach was used in which parents had weekly telephone contact with a therapist.

Heritability of individual depressive symptoms.

Background: In attempting to understand the familial basis of depression, most studies have focused on broad indices of depression and mood change. Broad indices may not adequately reflect the heritable basis of depression because of an unexplored possibility that not all symptoms are heritable.

Methods: The heritability of individual depressive symptoms was estimated from a sample of 343 general population volunteer twin pairs who completed the Beck Depression Inventory, the Centre for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale and items from the Symptom Checklist assessing depressive symptoms.