Primary peptic ulcer in childhood. Psychosocial, psychological and psychiatric aspects

Parental protection of extremely low birth weight children at age 8 years

OBJECTIVE

To examine parent protection and its correlates among 8-year-old ELBW children compared with normal birth weight (NBW) controls.

METHODS

The population included 217 eight-year-old ELBW children born 1992-1995 (92% of the surviving birth cohort; mean birth weight, 811 g; mean gestational age, 26.4 weeks) and 176 NBW controls. The primary outcome measure, the Parent Protection Scale (PPS), included a total score and four domains including Supervision, Separation, Dependence, and Control. Multivariate analyses were performed to examine the predictors of parental protection and overprotection.

RESULTS

After adjusting for socioeconomic status (SES), race, sex, and age of the child, parents of ELBW children reported significantly higher mean total Parent Protection Scale scores (31.1 vs 29.7, p = .03) than parents of NBW children and higher scores on the subscale of Parent Control (8.0 vs 7.5, p = .04). These differences were not significant when the 36 children with neurosensory impairments were excluded. Parents of ELBW children also reported higher rates of overprotection than controls (10% vs 2%, p = .001), findings that remained significant even after excluding children with neurosensory impairments (8% vs 2%, p = .011). Multivariate analyses revealed lower SES to be associated with higher total Parent Protection Scale scores in both the ELBW (p < .001) and NBW (p < .05) groups. Additional correlates included neurosensory impairment (p < .05) and functional limitations (p < .001) in the ELBW group and black race (p < .05) and maternal depression (p < .01) in the NBW group. Lower child IQ was significantly associated with higher PPS scores only in the neurosensory impaired subgroup of ELBW children.

CONCLUSIONS

Longer term follow-up will be necessary to examine the effects of the increased parent protection on the development of autonomy and interpersonal relationships as the children enter adolescence.

The personality pattern of duodenal ulcer patients in relation to spontaneous ulcer healing and relapse

One hundred consecutive out-patients with duodenal ulceration from a hospital and a gastroenterological clinic were tested with the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI). This was carried out in order to investigate whether neuroticism or other personality disorders were characteristics of duodenal ulcer patients, and whether the presence of such possible personality disorders might influence the prognosis of the disease. Neuroticism occurred in 53% of the patients, but only in 5% of controls (P less than 0.0001). Overall, personality disorders were present in 69% of the patients compared with 30% of the controls (P less than 0.0001). Neuroticism was connected with a high frequency of relapse (P less than 0.05) whereas failure of spontaneous ulcer healing had no certain relation to personality disorders. Patients with non-neurotic personality disorders had more frequently suffered stressful life events before entrance to the study (P less than 0.05) and, like the neurotic patients, they had lower ego-strength to cope with such events (P less than 0.05). The results indicate that personality assessments make it possible to distinguish between subgroups of duodenal ulcer patients with different course of the disease.

Bereavement--an etiologic factor in peptic ulcer in childhood and adolescence?

Bereavement in childhood and adolescence is a relatively common experience. This case report and two studies suggest that the ulcer-prone adolescent may develop clinically significant symptoms under the stress of adapting to a recent loss of a loved one.