It has been suggested that Chlamydia pneumoniae (C. pneumoniae) is involved in the pathogenesis of diverse diseases of the central nervous system (CNS), including multiple sclerosis. We report the case of a 12-year-old male with isolated recurrent optic neuritis and an associated CNS infection with C. pneumoniae. The patient presented with three attacks of optic neuritis within 5 months. A positive polymerase chain reaction for C. pneumoniae in the cerebrospinal fluid led to the diagnosis of a CNS infection with C. pneumoniae. After treatment with the antibiotic rifampicin, he experienced no further attacks during the follow-up period of 6 years. These findings suggest the possibility of a C. pneumoniae infection as a contributing factor or even causative event for the development of optic neuritis.

The possibility that so-called anti-epileptic drugs (AEDs) may aggravate epilepsy must always be borne in mind by the clinician. Many reports of such aggravation of seizures have been published. Most such reports are anecdotal and speculative, and suggest that many such reactions are idiosyncratic. However, for some there is a sufficient body of evidence to suggest that some AEDs used in certain epilepsies may consistently cause worsening of seizures. Seizure aggravation may include increase in the frequency or severity of existing seizures, emergence of new types of seizure, or the occurrence of status epilepticus. The pathophysiology of seizure aggravation is poorly understood including non-specific effects such as those associated with sedation, drug-induced encephalopathy, and paradoxical or inverse pharmacodynamic effects. For some epilepsies the choice of AEDs may be inappropriate, and although the mechanism of seizure aggravation is not clear, its occurrence may be fairly predictable. This is best documented for the use of carbamazepine in idiopathic generalized and myoclonic epilepsies. Most other AEDs have been reported occasionally to cause seizure aggravation. The lowest risk of seizure aggravation appears to be with valproate. Risk factors for worsening of seizures are epileptic encephalopathy, polytherapy, high frequency of seizures, and cognitive impairment. Advances in pharmacogenomics may in the future enable such adverse effects to be predicted for individual patients. Meanwhile, a systematic approach to reporting AED-induced seizure aggravation should be developed.

The aim of this study was to provide a comprehensive profile of the sensory, motor, language, and intellectual functioning of a non-referred community sample of 49 preschool children with attention-deficit–hyperactivity disorder (ADHD; 39 males, 10 females; mean age 4y 7mo [SD 7mo]; range 3y 10mo–6y) and 48 typically developing children (38 males, 10 females; mean age 4y 8mo [SD 6mo]; range 3y 11mo–6y) matched by age, sex, and maternal education who underwent a broad battery of neurodevelopmental tests. The results showed that the scores of the ADHD group were significantly lower than the comparison group on all measures. In addition, 23 (47%) of the children with ADHD had clinically significant co-occurring deficits in two or more areas. Logistic regression indicated that the only significant predictors of group classification were scores of verbal intelligence and motor and sensory functioning, accounting for 44.1% of the variance. These findings suggest that preschool children with ADHD have multiple developmental deficits over and above the core symptoms of ADHD and emphasize the importance of evaluating the sensorimotor functioning of preschool children with ADHD symptoms.

First-onset tics during stimulant treatment of attention-deficit–hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are clinically relevant and remain a matter of scientific debate. Because there are limited clinical trials analyzing the risk of first-onset tics in stimulant-treated ADHD, a comprehensive evaluation is required for evidence-based clinical recommendations. An analysis of studies with high methodological quality (i.e. double-blind placebo-controlled) on first-onset tics during stimulant treatment of ADHD revealed that there seems to be no elevated risk of first-onset tics in children undergoing this treatment. Although a close temporal relationship might be seen in a few patients, the role of treatment duration, dose of stimulant, genetic vulnerability, and developmental aspects need to be further explored to clarify possible pathophysiological mechanisms of tic emergence under stimulant treatment. The results of high quality studies, in addition to specialized studies with methodological limitations, suggest that stimulants are the criterion standard for the safe and successful treatment of ADHD.

Passive stretching is widely used for individuals with spasticity in a belief that tightness or contracture of soft tissues can be corrected and lengthened. Evidence for the efficacy of passive stretching on individuals with spasticity is limited. The aim of this review was to evaluate the evidence on the effectiveness of passive stretching in children with spastic cerebral palsy. Seven studies were selected according to the selection criteria and scored against the Physiotherapy Evidence Database scale. Effect size and 95% confidence intervals were calculated for comparison. There was limited evidence that manual stretching can increase range of movements, reduce spasticity, or improve walking efficiency in children with spasticity. It appeared that sustained stretching of longer duration was preferable to improve range of movements and to reduce spasticity of muscles around the targeted joints. Methods of passive stretching were varied. Further research is required given the present lack of knowledge about treatment outcomes and the wide use of this treatment modality.

A significant proportion of children who sustain traumatic brain injury will go on to experience disturbance in their academic, emotional, and social functioning. There is a role for medication in the treatment of these late onset changes. This review will focus on the recognition and pharmacological treatment of the most common and most problematic presentations that may follow head injury, and supports the use of stimulant medication for secondary attention-deficit–hyperactivity disorder despite the small evidence base for use in children.

Nothing in clinical medicine is one hundred per cent certain. Part of a doctor's education involves learning how to cope with the anxiety that uncertainty in decisions affecting life and death inevitably produces. This paper examines: (1) the role of anxiety – both rational and irrational – in the provision of health care; (2) the effects of uncertainty upon the doctor–patient relationship; (3) the threat uncertainty poses to medical authority (and the assumption of infallibility that props it up); (4) the contribution of clinical uncertainty to the rising popularity of alternative therapies; and (5) the clash between the medical and the legal understanding of how certainty should be defined, particularly as it affects the paediatric community. It concludes by suggesting some strategies that might facilitate successful navigation between the opposing and ever-present forces of certainty and uncertainty.

‘Healing’Papa would tell me,‘is not a sciencebut the intuitive Artof wooing Nature.’

The Art of Healing (In Memoriam David Protech, M.D.) W H Auden

My friendly German elective student, explaining the nuances of Gemütlichkeit, suggested ‘atmosphere’ in response to my suggestion of ‘aura’ or ‘charm’. ‘Think of steamers on the Rhine and castles and beer and sausages and oompah pah bands,’ he said helpfully. It is also clear that the geniality, the homey comfortableness, can be contrived and false as well as genuine and engaging. No part of the student course addresses ‘How to be a Doctor’ because it is an impossibly pompous thing to talk about. You could hardly be addressed by someone who doesn't believe they have the answer; and that sounds smug. But, then, by a process of self-selection, many doctors avoid significant contact with people. Maybe they recognize that that part of medicine is less attractive to them, perhaps because they also recognize these interpersonal issues. However, the front-line troops of medicine do need to be able to cope with, communicate with, and understand people, and empathize, sympathize, counsel, and console. I worry about how well we teach that.

Constraint-induced (CI) movement therapy is a physical intervention that has been receiving increasing attention in pediatric rehabilitation. So far, the evidence suggests that practice associated with CI therapy may improve impaired unimanual hand function in some children with hemiplegic cerebral palsy (CP). However, CI therapy has several important limitations. Most importantly, children with hemiplegia have impairments in bimanual coordination beyond their unilateral impairments. Thus, an intervention approach to increase functional independence during activities of daily living by using both hands in cooperation is needed. Here we briefly review the etiology of hemiplegic CP, describe studies of pediatric CI therapy efficacy in relation to the etiology, discuss the conceptual and practical limitations of CI therapy for this population, and describe bimanual coordination impairments in children with hemiplegia. Finally, we introduce a new intervention for children with hemiplegia, hand–arm bimanual intensive training (HABIT), to address the limitations of CI therapy and to improve bimanual coordination. HABIT retains the two major elements of pediatric CI therapy (intensive structured practice and child-friendliness). The proposed methodology demonstrates that extensive targeted practice can be provided in a child-friendly manner without using a physical restraint, although the efficacy of such an approach remains to be determined.

Neurophysiological studies of sleep have increasingly focused on underlying dynamic processes. This would appear particularly relevant to the developmental aspects of sleep. Involvement of sleep-dependent mechanisms in emotional processing, as well as perceptual-sensory, perceptual-motor, and cognitive learning, mostly studied in adults, may play major roles in development. Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, which is generated by complex neuronal interactions within the pontine reticular formation, and non-REM sleep, which arises from activities in the thalamocortical network, are specifically implicated in different aspects of long-term memory systems. They evolve from previous physiological and behavioural states which can be traced back to the fetal period. Further studies are needed to clearly identify functions reflected by hallmarks of sleep stages, such as spindles and K complexes. A better understanding of the maturational aspects of sleep should provide important insights into physiological development. Assessment approaches taking dynamic characteristics of sleep into account may contribute to the design of better targeted management of sleep-related problems in neurodevelopmental conditions.

A systematic search was performed of all articles from January 1995 to December 2005 published in peer-reviewed journals on children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD). Criteria were applied to ensure that articles included DCD so 319 articles were included in the analysis. Since the publication of a systematic search conducted in 1994, the number of publications in this field has greatly increased across countries and disciplines. The term DCD was used in 52.7% of the articles. Other terms were used less frequently: clumsy children (7.2%), developmental dyspraxia (3.5%), handwriting problems (3.1%), hand–eye coordination problems (2.8%), sensory integration dysfunction (2.5%), deficits in attention, motor control, and perception (2.5%), minor neurological dysfunction (2.2%), and several other scattered terms (23.5%). The data indicated that progress has been made in the usage of the term DCD, but a standardized approach has not yet been achieved. Without consistent use of the term DCD, there is limited communication of research results internationally, slowed progress in understanding the condition, and limited development of intervention and management programmes for children with DCD.

This paper discusses some of the issues that, once resolved, may help child neurologists and pediatric neuroepidemiologists in their mutual understanding and collaborative efforts. Emphasis is placed on the all-too-frequent assumption that evidence-based medicine only covers the application of results from randomized double-blind trials in practice. A considerable proportion of child neurology concerns clinical diagnosis and etiological inference. Therefore, evidence-based child neurology might benefit not only from the therapeutic, but also from the diagnostic and etiological components of epidemiology.

The aim of this study was to follow-up prospectively a cohort of preschool children originally recruited from successive referrals to speech and language therapy community clinics and to investigate their linguistic, literacy, and social outcomes at 7 to 10 years of age. Three hundred and fifty children aged 84 to 113 months (mean age 99.9mo [SD 5.4mo]) were singletons from monolingual backgrounds where there was concern about their speech and language development. Children who had severe learning difficulties, autism, oromotor deficits, dysfluency, or dysphonia were excluded. Altogether 196 (56%), 134 males and 62 females, were seen at follow-up. A control group of children who had never been referred for speech and language therapy, 57% of whom were males, was also recruited (n=94; mean age 104.4mo [SD 6.8mo]). All children were assessed on standardized measures of speech, language, and literacy. Teachers and parents completed questionnaires on educational and social outcomes. In total, 139 children in the cohort were within the normal range on standardized language assessments. About 30% of the original cohort of children continue to struggle with language, literacy, and social difficulties. The study demonstrates the long-term nature of language impairment and reinforces the need for awareness among professionals in child development and education of the ongoing needs of this population of children.