Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is one of the sensory modulation disorders among others like autism, Asperger syndrome and Fragile X syndrome. Little is known about patients with ADHD and their sensory processing issues in Sri Lanka.

To investigate differences in sensory processing among children between (3–10) yrs with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and those who are typically developing in Sri Lanka.

A descriptive cross sectional study of 75 children aged (3–10) yrs attending child guidance clinic at Lady Ridgeway Hospital (LRH) were compared with 75 age matched peers who were typically developing, using the Short Sensory Profile (SSP).

Out of the sample population of 150, there was a significant difference in sensory processing total score (P-0.001) (df-29) of children with ADHD when compared to the typically developing group. The greatest differences were reported on the tactile (P-0.013), taste (P-0.000), under responsiveness (P-0.002), auditory filtering (P-0.002) & low energy (P-0.017). Out of the raw items commonest sensory processing problems were difficulty standing in line, distractability if there is a lot of noise around, being unable to work with background noise & difficulty paying attention due to auditory deficits.

Majority of children in this sample were reported to have difficulties with processing and responding to sensory input on the SSP. Further studies are needed to assess sensory issues in children with ADHD, to carry out effective interventions.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

The study of the oral and written language delayed at the school makes possible the early detection of scholar, behavioral and psychiatric disorders. These difficulties could affect to the personal and professional development.

To confirm the relationship between language oral and written delayed for the early detection of developmental disorders.

A sample of 350 subjects among 5 and 23 years of age is analyzed with oral and/or written language difficulties. It is studied diagnosis, gender, age, reason for treatment, grade and submitter.

The specific learning disabilities (SLD) request a 62.3% of the treatment among 7–10 years. The percentages of SLD are: reading comprehension difficulties (17.4%), dysorthography (13.4%), reading fluency and reading comprehension difficulties (12.9%), reading fluency (11.7%) and, dysorthography and reading fluency (6.9%). There exist percentage differences between repeaters (39.4%) and no repeaters (22.9%) students with DALE. The oral/written language provides the early detection of Intellectual disabilities (8.6% of the simple). The relation between the reason for treatment and diagnosis do not coincide: the consults was 3.7% for oral language delay, 2.6% for reading comprehension difficulties, 1.4% for dysorthography and 0.9% for reading fluency. The school demand more treatment (50.9%), next to medical centers (22.3%) and family initiative (15.7%).

The oral/written language delayed – especially the reading comprehension difficulties – are a good early detection for the developmental disorders (intellectual disabilities minor, SLD and TDAH at the primary stage). There is more percentage of boys than girls (2:1) with language delayed, except at Intellectual disabilities, because there is an identical percentage (4.3%).

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

The term executive functions (EFs) includes a set of cognitive processes such as planning, working memory, attention, problem solving, inhibition, mental flexibility, multi-tasking, and initiation and monitoring of actions. EFs are the higher order control processes to guide behaviour.

Some studies on the relationship between EFs and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) showed deficit in the cognitive flexibility and speed processing, particularly with Asperger syndrome. Recently, Merchán-Naranjo et al. [1] supported that children's and adolescents with autism without intellectual disability are insufficient in at least 5 domains: attention, working memory, cognitive flexibility, inhibitory control and problem-solving.

Our work is aimed at verifying if the presence of a dysexecutive syndrome significantly impacts on the adaptive functioning of people with high functioning autism.

A group of young adults with ASD were administered traditional neuropsychological assessment, specific assessment, focusing on the planning strategies for solving problems (Test Tower of London), abstraction and categorization (Wisconsin Card Sorting Test), and the Dysexecutive Questionnaires.

The results showed the presence of a specific deficit in the executive functioning in an average cognitive functioning.

Integrate the standard cognitive screening with a specific EFs assessment resulted to be very useful for the clinician to realize neuropsychological and psychotherapeutic individualized treatment.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

One of the main challenges facing the fact that every society has always called divorce. Phenomenon in modern societies is growing at a rapid rate and adverse effects of economic, social and especially psychological, parents and children.

This study pays to determining the influence of game treatment on decreasing divorce children's’ stress.

The method of study is of testing in which statistical society of study includes all children (girl and boy) of divorced parents. From all statistical society, we have selected a sample about 26 persons by randomly sampling. The instrument for gathering information in this study includes children stress test (SCARED) in which has been studied sample after measuring its narration and stability.

The result of dependent t-test and covariance analysis showed game treatment has meaningful and positive influence on children stress.

The amount of its interference on decreasing divorce children stress is about 83%. It means 83% of the whole remained scores variance is related to game treatment interference.

The author has not supplied his declaration of competing interest.

The Mood and Feelings Questionnaire (MFQ) was developed to measure depressive symptoms in children and adolescents. It includes a child self-report part and a parent report on child part. The MFQ has been validated and proven clinical useful in several countries.

To validate the MFQ in a population of Danish children and adolescents.

There is a need of a standardized questionnaire for Danish children and adolescents tapping into affective symptoms. Before routine use the MFQ must have been validated in Denmark. This study examines the validity of MFQ in Danish children and adolescents.

The study included two samples of probands aged 8–18 years. A population-based sample of school children and their parents, and a clinical sample including two subsamples:

– patients referred for Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services with depressive symptoms;

– in-patients at the paediatric department of a University Hospital.

All included probands and their parents filled out the MFQ and the clinical samples in addition answered the depression section of the Beck Youth Inventories, and were interviewed using the depression part of “K-SADS-PL”.

Preliminary results from both samples will be presented at the EPA 2017 in Florence.

Depending on the results of this study, the MFQ might be used as a screening instrument and as a clinical tool to monitor depressive symptoms in Danish children and adolescents.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

The author has not supplied his declaration of competing interest.

Acne vulgaris is a common skin disease that affects the majority of adolescents. The physical changes of acne may have negative effects on the psychological structure of adolescents such as anxiety and depression. Alexithymia has been suggested to be an important symptom in psychodermatological patients.

Our study aims to access depression in adolescents with A. vulgaris and to evaluate its relationship with alexithymia.

This is a descriptive cross-sectional study regarding 50 adolescents followed in the outpatient dermatology unit of Hédi Chaker University hospital in Sfax (Tunisia). To assess depression, we used a psychometric tool: Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). The Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) was used to evaluate alexithymia. The severity of acne was evaluated with the Global Acne Evaluation (GEA) Scale.

The mean age of adolescents was 15 years 9 months. Almost all of adolescents was female (82%), and live in urban area.

The severity of A. vulgaris was mild in 50%, moderate in 32% and severe in 18%.

The prevalence of depression was 48%. Twenty-four percent of them have a major depression. Forty-six percent of patients scored positive for alexithymia.

The occurrence of depression was significantly associated to alexithymia (P = 0.003).

This study showed a positive correlation between alexithymia and depression.

These results can be useful in treatment based on processing of emotional information and regulation of emotions.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

The developments of familiar therapy allows a systemic (collaborative) approach centered in what functions best in the system, integrating action plans which presupposes a family appreciation concept as a transformer system.

Presentation of a family clinical case (X family) in which one of the members is diagnosed with “elective mutism”, this being labelled as a “a family problem” which led to familiar therapy.

In the therapeutic process we use a number of resources centered in family strengths as strategies directed to the solution and system change. We incorporate an innovating strategy, which we call “differentiated spectularity”, trying to make something different based on therapy concepts centered on solutions. The presentation of exceptions and the use of scales allowed us to monitor the change process.

The strategy materialization, where family members in their family environment saw the film of their latest session in a favourable context for the enlargement of their own vision as a family, allowed change expansion amplifying its complexity. The family members perceive themselves as having a moderate cohesion level, increasing the levels of adaptability, which places the X family in a “balanced” class. The family member with a diagnosis of elective mutism, after six months of family therapy, showed changes in withdrawal, anxiety and shyness behaviour.

Sharing family members different versions allows us to tell the story over and over again. The questioning emerging from the pro-active mirror effect is the core element of the change registered with incidence in the emotional and behaviour domains.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

This study aimed to investigate the therapeutic effect of a combination of magnesium, calcium and zinc as a complementary treatment in a population of the children with ADHD in Zahedan.

In this clinical trial, 40 patients with ADHD aged 6 to 12. The simple convenience sampling was done and the patients were randomly divided into two groups of receiving methylphenidate plus magnesium + zinc + calcium, and methylphenidate plus placebo.

The mean severities of the symptoms in the group treated with methylphenidate plus the supplements were 40/4 ± 2/4 before the treatment, and 19/5 ± 6/1 after 8 weeks of treatment (P < 0.001).

This study shows that zinc, magnesium and calcium supplement is useful in the treatment of ADHD and can be used to treat patients.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Autism is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by deficits in communication and social skills as well as stereotypical behaviors. There are multiple lines of evidence, suggesting that the immune system is involved in autism. Since secretory IgA (SIgA) is the predominant antibody isotype in saliva and a marker of mucosal immunity, the aim of the study was to assess if the severity of clinical and behavioral parameters of autistic children was associated with low levels of sIgA in saliva.

To assess possible associations between salivary levels of sIgA and the severity of behavioral outcomes related to autism. In addition, were studied sIgA in saliva of children with autism and the frequency of respiratory tract infections diagnosed in the first 3 years of life.

Saliva samples were obtained from 3–10 years old autistic children and age-matched typically developing Caucasian children from Patagonia, Argentina.

Autistic children with reduced levels of salivary sIgA had a higher incidence of respiratory diseases compared to controls. The reduction in sIgA levels inversely correlated with the severity of the behavioral disorders. The patients with the most severe impairment in autism-related behaviors had the lowest levels of sIgA in the cohort studied.

These findings suggest that sIgA could be an early non-invasive indicator of the dysregulation of the immune system in some children with autism. Clearly, the characterization of immunological parameters has important implications for detection of subgroups of children with ASD, and should be considered when designing therapeutic strategies to treat behavioral impairments of ASD.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

A collaboration between the Child and Adolescent Unit 2 (Badof-2) and Community Mental Health 2 (CMHC-2) started several years ago in order to have a joint take in charge of under 25 people presenting needs to either one of the services. A major focus has been put, in this period, on early psychotic onset.

The impact of schizophrenia and other psychotic disorders on daily life has been very well studied in clinical populations and in general ones, leaving some gaps on which are more heavily involved in the resulting disability. In this study, we have used the HoNOS scale, in the Italian validated version, in order to evaluate the single items.

We have enrolled all the under-30 people taken in charge by the two aforementioned services in the period 2013–2016 with a ICD-10 F20–F29 diagnosis, dividing them in two subgroups (′13–′14 and ′15–′16) in order to find if there was an impact of the prolonged time of take in charge. A HoNOS evaluation has been submitted to all the 21 people found.

HoNOS scores of the first subgroup are generally lower than the ones of the second subgroup (median: 6 vs. 16.5). Self-harmness, cognitive disorders and post-psychotic depression have a heavier impact in daily life than the classic positive and negative symptomatology. Focusing on psychosocial recovery programs, this area has been partly marginally affected.

The two subgroups show different HoNOS scores, with lower ones in the ′13–′14 group. More studies on general population and covariates should be conducted.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

To examine the association of adolescent depression and anxiety symptoms with daily smoking and nicotine dependence in Tunisians teenagers.

A cross-sectional study including teenagers (n = 162) from two colleges located in Gabes (south of Tunisia) and used a self-administered anonymous questionnaire. Adolescent depression and anxiety symptoms were assessed using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression scale translated and validated in Tunisia. adolescent tobacco use was defined as: daily use (6 or 7 days per week) and the loss of autonomy over tobacco use was evaluated with the Hooked on Nicotine Checklist (HONC).

The prevalence of smoking was 61.7%. It was 92% for boys and 8% for girls. In our sample, 30.7% of teenagers used manufactured cigarettes and chicha; 93.8% of daily smokers had already lost control of their smoking. Their average score the HONC was 5.5 (gap deviation 2.4). Of these, 61.3% had a score greater than or equal to 5. Rates of anxiety and depression were respectively 43% and 20%. Nicotine-dependent adolescents were significantly more anxious than non-dependent: 68.3% vs. 48.7% (P = 0.04). We do not note significant differences between depressed teenagers and adolescents without depression, regarding nicotine dependence.

Smoking is frequent among teenagers in Gabes. Adolescent smokers with anxiety symptoms are at increased risk for nicotine dependence. These results incite to pursue work that takes account of the specific diagnosis and treatment of tobacco dependence among adolescents, especially when psychiatric comorbidity makes smoking cessation more difficult.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Romantic and sexual functioning in individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are understudied. Recent findings evidenced that adolescents and adults with present romantic and sexual behaviors comparable with their neurotypical peers. However, it is worth to note that dysfunctional and inappropriate romantic and sexual behaviors are often described in this population.

To investigate efficacy of a psycho-educational training in a small group of adolescent with high-functioning ASD (HFA, QI > 70).

Six adolescents (all males, range age 14–16 years) have been evaluated before (T0) and after (T1) a 10-session sexual and romantic psycho-educational structured group training, of 90′ each session. Clinical evaluation included parent-report questionnaires, as SBS for sexual behaviors and CBCL for behavioral problems, and a self-report questionnaire for sexual behaviors, called SESAMO. Moreover, autistic symptoms were investigated with ADOS-2 at T0.

Preliminary analysis revealed a statistically significant differences between T0 and T1 in sexual education (P = 0.02) and frequency of dysfunctional sexual behaviors (P = 0.02) of SBS and in sexual expectations about the partner in SESAMO (P = 0.04). No differences were found in CBCL.

Preliminary results showed an improvement of romantic and sexual functioning in adolescent boys with HFA, as reported by either parents and adolescents, after participating to a structured psycho-educational training. More sexual education and information, less inappropriate sexual behaviors and more-appropriate expectations about potential partner were reported at the end of the training. These results should be confirmed in studies including larger ASD and control sample.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

There is a higher incidence of borderline personality disorder (BPD) in families and offspring of people with the disorder, suggesting that both genetic and environmental factors are vulnerable to the condition that is passed from generation to generation.

Identify the parenting strategies used by these mothers as potential targets for psychological intervention.

Literature review of the scientific literature.

The literature shows that mothers with BPD often have very characteristic parenting practices and that they are conditioned by what is inherent to BPD – oscillations between a search for excessive control of the other person for fear of abandonment and neglect behaviors, attachment insecure or disorganized. They are between extremes of over-involvement and lack of involvement with the child, that is, mothers who show themselves in some cold, avoidant and rejecting moments and in others that are excessively demanding, invasive and over-involved with the child, consistently denoting a pattern. Of relationship that goes from one end to the other.

Attachment-based interventions work through corrective experiences in the therapeutic relationship, work on their attachment style, giving the mother an opportunity to reflect on her own childhood experiences with her caregivers and how they led her to Have an insecure or disorganized attachment, while being encouraged to connect these reflections with your current experiences with your child.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Autistic children could not organize their social life direction and understanding and interpreting other sensation and only achieve so many information by looking others and instinct for creating the best space for achieving success.

The present study was designed to evaluate the efficacy of a multi-dimensional training program, using a combination of TICH and ABA on improving the behavior of autistic children in the city of Karaj.

The population in this study was all autistic students in a boys exceptional children school in city of Karaj. All participants (n = 16) were randomly assigned in two groups, experimental group (n = 8), and control group (n = 8). This research was carried out experimentally, and multi-dimensional training program was carried out on experimental group in the context of 12 training session for 2 months and two-hour sessions per week. During this time, the control group did not receive any training. In order to collect data the Autism Diagnostic Inventory that was proven its validity and reliability has been used.

The collected data were analyzed with co-variance method.

The results showed that the multi-dimensional training program had significant influence on social and verbal communication skills and the reduction of stereotyped behaviors in autistic children.

Therefore, we can plan a multi-dimensional approach as a comprehensive training program for this group of children and used it weekly as an independent course in autistic children academic schedule.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.

Sleep problems are common in infancy. Some infants are prescribed sleep-inducing drugs even if not approved for the age group. Poor sleep as toddler is a risk factor for development of behavioral problems in childhood. It is unknown if this is true also for attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

To evaluate two sources of information on toddler drug use (mother-reported questionnaire-data and prescription database for hypnotic drugs for children aged 0–18 months) and see if these predict receiving a later diagnosis of ADHD.

Are sleeping problems as measured by the use of hypnotics in toddlers a risk factor for ADHD?

Prescription database information data was collected for 47,413 children participating in the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort, where mothers report on toddler drug use. These two datasets were used as predictors of diagnoses of ADHD as seen in the Norwegian Patients Registry in a 7-year follow up period.

Agreement between mother-reported drug use and hypnotics use as measured was less than 50% for all hypnotics (min 19% and max 48%). The two datasets will be further used to investigate the relationship between toddler drug use and a later childhood diagnosis of ADHD.

Considering the low to moderate agreement between mother-reported survey data and data from prescription databases it is of value to use both data sources in a study looking at the predictive value of sleeping problems and hypnotics use in toddlers on later development of ADHD.

The authors have not supplied their declaration of competing interest.