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[Symptomatological patterns of infancy diseases. Presentation of a new Symptom Checklist]
A Milone1, V A Viglione, S Maestro
1Istituto di Neuropsichiatria e Psicopedagogia dell'Età Evolutiva IRCCS Stella Maris, Università degli Studi, Pisa.
Insights
A new Symptom Checklist helps identify early signs of developmental disorders in children under 48 months. This tool aids in recognizing psychiatric risk and potential poor prognosis in infants.
Area of Science:
- Pediatric Neurology
- Child Psychiatry
- Developmental Psychology
Background:
- Increasing consultations for children's psychic discomfort manifesting as somatic or behavioral issues.
- Unclear prognostic significance of these symptoms, ranging from transient crises to early signs of developmental disorders.
- Need for reliable diagnostic tools for early detection in young children.
Purpose of the Study:
- Evaluate a Symptom Checklist for identifying somatic complaints and behavior disorders in Italian children under 48 months.
- Identify symptom patterns indicative of neurological and psychiatric diseases in early childhood.
- Assess the clinical utility of the Symptom Checklist for early risk identification.
Main Methods:
- Cross-sectional study utilizing a Symptom Checklist.
- Clinical sample: 30 children (<48 months) with developmental linguistic disorder, prematurity, or pervasive developmental disorder.
- Control sample: 37 children.
Main Results:
- Symptom patterns (somatic or behavioral) were identified as specific to each clinical condition.
- The Symptom Checklist demonstrated effectiveness in differentiating between clinical groups and the control group.
- Distinct symptom profiles were associated with specific neurological and psychiatric diagnoses.
Conclusions:
- The Symptom Checklist is clinically useful for identifying psychiatric risk in infancy.
- The tool aids in the early detection of conditions with a potentially poor prognosis.
- Specific symptom patterns identified by the checklist support early diagnosis and intervention.
Background:
Recently it is often very frequent a request of specialist consultation for children with psychic discomfort expressed through somatic complaints and/or behavior disorders. The real meaning of these symptoms in terms of prognosis, is not clear; indeed they can be the first signs of a poor prognosis of developmental disorders or a transient developmental crisis. The objective of this study is the evaluation of a Symptom Checklist as an instrument which allows to point out the somatic complaints and the behavior disorders of Italian children aged less than 48 months and to identify symptoms patterns which label the main neurological and psychiatric diseases in that age.
Methods:
The Symptom Checklist has been used transversely in a clinical sample of 30 subjects (24 males and 6 females) aged less than 48 months with developmental linguistic disorder, born prematurely or with a developmental pervasive disorder and in a control sample of 37 children (21 males and 16 females).
Results And Conclusions:
The results obtained, matching every single group to each other and every single group to the control group, identify symptoms pattern (somatic or behavioral) specific for each clinical condition examined; therefore, the clinical utility of Symptom Checklist in pointing out in infancy psychiatric risk cases for a poor prognosis is confirmed.