Subjektive Krankheitstheorien bei Kindern und Jugendlichen mit somatoformen Störungen oder Asthma bronchiale und ihren Eltern

Objective: Illness beliefs of children and adolescents (age: 8 - 18 years) with somatoform disorders or asthma bronchiale and of their parents were compared. Methods: 25 patients of each diagnostic group and their parents participated independently in semi-structured interviews. The answers were categorized after qualitative content analyses. The frequencies of specific illness beliefs in each group were compared, coefficients of similarity between patients’ and their parents’ illness beliefs were calculated. Results: Illness beliefs are mostly multi-dimensional, but not consistent. We discriminated seven categories of causal attributions: genetic, mental, somatic, developmental, behavioural, social, and physical/environmental. Children and adolescents reported less complex attributions compared with their parents; moderate similarity between patients’ and their parents’ illness beliefs is demonstrated. Disease specific attributions were most prominent in the parental perspective, with a preference for psycho-social illness attributions in parents of patients with somatoform disorders and a preference for genetic, physical-external and somatic attributions in parents of patients with asthma. Patients with somatoform disorders considered significantly more often psycho-social illness causes, compared with patients in the asthma-group. Conclusion: Differential apriori assessment of patients’ and parents’ illness beliefs may contribute to effective cognitive-behavioural interventions

1st Young Environmental Scientists (YES) meeting : new challenges in environmental sciences

The 1st Young Environmental Scientists (YES) Meeting took place in March (16–18) 2009 at the Institute for Environmental Sciences at the University of Koblenz-Landau, Landau Campus, Germany. These special students only conference was organised under the umbrella of Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry (SETAC) Europe by its Student Advisory Council (SAC). The SAC represents student members (master, diploma or Ph.D.) throughout every level of SETAC and provides additional advice, recommendations and new initiatives to the SETAC Europe Council. Aimed at an active participation of students in scientific meetings, the structure of usual SETAC Europe annual meetings was filled with innovative ideas to foster essential skills and to support the progress of the student’s (scientific) career. Besides the acquisition of funding, a barrier students have to overcome is getting in contact with other scientists and thus build up their personal network, which is fundamental for scientific progress. Among others, the SAC addressed these issues

Illness perception in pediatric somatization and asthma: complaints and health locus of control beliefs

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Health- and illness-related cognitions of pediatric patients with asthma or somatization and of their caregivers are considered relevant for patient education and for cognitive-behavioral interventions. This study investigates the relationship between diagnosis and illness perception by child and parent in two different chronic conditions such as somatization disorder and asthma.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>25 patients with somatoform disorders and 25 patients with asthma bronchiale completed the Giessen Complaint List and the Multidimensional Health Locus of Control Scale. Primary caregivers independently answered parallel proxy-report instruments. Analyses of variance were performed to determine the impact of diagnosis and perspective. Correlations were calculated to determine the concordance between patient and caregiver reports.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>No statistically significant differences in illness locus of control beliefs were found between asthma and somatoform disorder children or parents. Parents reported more internal and fatalistic locus of control beliefs compared with their children. Correlations between patient and caregiver reports of symptoms and health locus of control beliefs were low to moderate.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Clinicians should take into account a sense of insufficient symptom control in both diagnostic groups and different viewpoints of patients and their parents.</p