Muscle Tonicity of Children with Spastic Cerebral Palsy: How Effective Is Swedish Massage?

ObjectiveMassage therapy is one of the most widely used complementary and alternative medicine therapies for children. This study was conducted to determine the effect of Swedish massage on the muscle tonicity of children with spastic cerebral palsy (CP).Materials & MethodsThis study was a single blind clinical trial conducted on forty children with spastic CP, recruited from clinics of the University of Social Welfare & Rehabilitation Sciences. They were randomly assigned to intervention and control groups. Routine occupational therapy techniques were performed during a 3 monthperiod in both groups, while the intervention group also received Swedish massage for 30 minutes before every rehabilitation session. Muscle tonicity was evaluated at the  beginning of the study and 3 months later using the Modified Ashworth Scale.ResultsThe average ages of children in the intervention (n=13) and control (n=14) groups were 49.5 and 42.1 months respectively. Although after intervention, tonicity of upper and lower limbs, trunk and neck in the intervention group in comparison with controls had no significant differences, there were statistically significant differences in reduction rate of tonicity in upper limbs and trunk between the two groups (P <0.05).ConclusionMassage therapy is not a panacea for improvement of spasticity in children with CP but the encouraging results of other studies on children with CP indicate that further studies are needed for more definite results

Effect of Lamotrigine on Prophylaxis of Pediatric Classic Migraine

ObjectiveThis study was conducted to evaluate the preventive effect of lamotringine on migraine aura and migraine attacks in children, afflicted with classic migraine.Material & MethodsConducted between October 2005 and April 2008 in the neurology clinic of Kashani hospital,  Shahrekord, this study was a clinical trial, aimed at evaluating the prophylactic effects of Lamotringine administered to 21 children suffering from migraine with aura.ResultsOf the subjects, 52.4% of patients were female. The most common type of aura was visual (42.9%). Following use of Lamotrigine, significant reductions were seen in the frequency (from 5 ± 0.83 to 3.04 ± 1.65) and in intensity (from 6. 33 ± 1.08 to 3.66 ± 1.1) of migraine aura (P= 0.002). After 6 months of drug usage 66.6% of patients were improved.ConclusionLamotringine is effective in reducing the migraine aura and intensity of attacks in patients suffering from migraine with aura, and is hence beneficial for prophylactic therapy in children with classic migraine.

Swedish massage and abnormal reflexes of children with spastic cerebral palsy

Objectives: Massage therapy is one of the most widely used complementary and alternative medicine therapies for children. This study was conducted to determine the effect of wedish massage on abnormal reflexes in children with spastic cerebral palsy (CP). Material and Methods: This study was a single blind clinical trial conducted on forty children with spastic CP who were recruited from clinics of the University of Social Welfare & Rehabilitation Sciences. They were randomly assigned to intervention and control groups. The routine occupational therapy (OT) techniques were performed during a 3 month-period in both groups. The intervention group also received Swedish massage for 30 minutes before every OT session. Primary, spinal, brain stem, midbrain, cortical and automatic reflexes were evaluated at the beginning of the study and 3 months later. The data analysis was done by parametric and nonparametric tests. Results: Finally, thirteen subjects in the intervention group and 14 subjects in the control group were remained and studied. The average ages in the intervention and control groups were 49.5 and 42.1 months respectively. There were no statistically significant differences in abnormal reflexes in the intervention group in comparison to the control (P > 0.05). Conclusion: Adding Swedish massage to traditional OT techniques had no significant effects on abnormal reflexes in children with spastic cerebral palsy. Evidently more research is required in order to completely reject the effects of Swedish massage on abnormal reflexes of children with CP

Standardization and validation of the ASQ developmental disorders screening tool in children of Tehran city

Background: The aim of this study was to provide a valid Persian version of the Ages and Stages Questionnaires, in order to compensate the lack of developmental screening tools in Iran.Methods: Forward and backward translation, face and content validity determination, and cultural and linguistic adaptation of the questionnaires were performed, consecutively. Next, a pilot study was carried out on 100 Iranian parents of 4- to 60-month-old children, recruited by consecutive sampling in Tehran, Iran during the year 2006 to determine the degree of clarity for each item and explore cultural adaptations. In order to determine inter-rater reliability, we had parents of 38 children complete the questionnaires. For determining the psychometric properties of the tests, we later recruited a representative sample of 555, 4- to 6-year-old children by consecutive sampling from health care centers in five main geographical areas in Tehran.Results: Performing cultural and lingual adaptations, our expert team made some inevitable changes to the questionnaires. Almost in all age groups older than 10 months, cultural or linguistic changes were made in items in the “communication” domain. Overall, the questionnaires’ Cronbach alpha was 0.79. The constructive validity of the tests was also satisfactory. Another important finding was determination of the children’s developmental mean scores.Conclusion: The culturally adapted Persian copies of the Ages and Stages Questionnai-res have proper validity and reliability for being used as developmental screening tools for children in Tehran