Understanding and helping children who have experienced maltreatment.

Children who experience maltreatment from within their families can suffer trauma that is devastating to their physical and psychological development. The label developmental trauma has developed to describe this trauma and to guide diagnosis. This has been expanded to describe seven domains of impairment.

Functional neurological movements in children: Management with a psychological approach.

Aim: To develop a cognitive behavioural treatment (CBT) approach that included novel attention training components to support symptom management in children with a primary diagnosis of Functional Movement Disorder (FMD).

Method: Eighteen children (9 male and 9 female) with a mean age of 13 years (sd = 2.46, range 10-18 years) were assessed and completed CBT with novel attention training components.

A qualitative exploration of the experiences of adoptive parents attending 'Nurturing Attachments', a dyadic developmental psychotherapy informed group.

Children who are adopted have frequently experienced a range of aversive experience which impact on their ability to form secure attachments. Dyadic Developmental Psychotherapy (DDP) is an intervention designed to develop and promote secure attachments with children who have experienced developmental trauma. Eight adoptive parents participated in semi-structured interviews regarding their experiences of attending the 'Nurturing Attachment' group informed by DDP.

A pilot randomized controlled trial of self-help relaxation to reduce post-stroke depression.

Objective: To consider the potential of self-help relaxation training to treat depression after stroke.

Design: Randomized controlled trial with cross-over at three months.

Setting: Community.

Twelve month follow-up on a randomised controlled trial of relaxation training for post-stroke anxiety.

Objective: To follow up participants in a randomised controlled trial of relaxation training for anxiety after stroke at 12 months.

Design: Twelve month follow-up to a randomised controlled trial, in which the control group also received treatment.

Setting: Community.

Self-help relaxation for post-stroke anxiety: a randomised, controlled pilot study.

Objective: To consider relaxation as a potential treatment for anxiety in stroke survivors living in the community, including feasibility and acceptability.

Design: Randomised two group design (intervention and control).

Participants: All participants (n = 21) were stroke survivors living in the community who reported experiencing anxiety (Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale - Anxiety Subscale ⩾ 6).

Multi-agency and specialist working to meet the mental health needs of children in care and adopted.

Many of the children and young people who are looked after in foster and residential care or are adopted have complex mental health needs that are not well met by traditional mental health services. These vulnerabilities stem from an interaction between pre- and post-care experience, and often include trauma, attachment and developmental difficulties. It is now widely recognized that these children are best served by dedicated services provided by professionals with expertise in meeting the needs of looked after and adopted children.

Providing Specialist Psychological Support to Foster Carers: A Consultation Model.

Background:   The task of fostering today is a complex one and foster carers need good quality support. This paper discusses a consultation service for foster carers.

Method:   It draws upon our qualitative experiences to explore the important themes that have emerged during the provision of the consultation service.

Assessing health needs in people with severe learning disabilities: a qualitative approach.

The nursing assessment, and the contribution it makes to the identification of an individual's health needs, is often a complex and multidimensional process. This is always true when the individual concerned has a severe learning disability. The nurse should develop the assessment in partnership with individuals who may experience major communication difficulties, or have unappreciated levels of perceptual or cognitive dysfunction.

Overexpression of nef as a marker for restricted HIV-1 infection of astrocytes in postmortem pediatric central nervous tissues.

In previous studies, using polymerase chain reaction amplification of HIV-1 genes directly from pathologic tissues of children who died with AIDS encephalopathy, we showed that the reading frame of the HIV-1 regulatory nef gene is open, suggesting that the nef protein was expressed. We now show, using immunocytochemistry and in situ hybridization with nef-specific probes in postmortem pediatric CNS tissues, that nef mRNA and protein are present in up to 20% of astrocytes in tissue sections selected for extensive histopathology. By contrast, HIV-1 structural proteins such as gag and their coding mRNAs are present in multinucleated giant cells that harbor productive infection and are the hallmark of HIV-1 infection in the CNS.