eLetters

119 e-Letters

published between 2016 and 2019

  • Reply to: Psychological Interventions have a place in Management of Paediatric Headache

    Reply to: Psychological Interventions have a place in Management of Paediatric Headache
    Michael J Morton, Honorary Clinical Senior Lecturer in Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, University of Glasgow

    We are very grateful to Dr Morton for highlighting the importance of CBT and other psychological / talking therapies for children and young people with headaches, and for drawing our attention to the recent systematic review by Ng et al. Where resources exist and permit referral, this can be offered as an adjunct to acute / rescue treatment advice and as an alternative or adjunct to preventative drug therapies and acupuncture for migraine, and may be transformative for worrying tension-type headaches. Even for the trigeminal autonomic cephalalgias (including paroxysmal hemicranias) and idiopathic stabbing headache, CBT and psychological support for the child and young person and their family and carers can be really helpful. Where access to psychological interventions is difficult or inadequate, we should still request it and support the development of these crucial services. Thank you for this important contribution.

    William Whitehouse and Shakti Agrawal

  • Suggestions post review

    Dear Rachael,

    I am very impressed indeed with your sound advice for trainees.

    Senior trainees should spend more time in clinic.
    Access to Outpatient referral console for all tier 2 trainees.
    Suggest that senior trainees should manage all general paediatric referrals as we already do it as part of CAU referral form.
    Senior trainees should be able to suggest to GP’s any investigations that might make the first consultation a one stop shop.
    Admin sessions should not be eaten into because of service provision responsibilities for trainees.
    Telemedicine for more urgent referrals and to avoid falsification of referrals
    Every GP trainee to conduct at least one new patient clinic to understand paediatric OP dynamics and procedure.

    Kindest regards,

    Dr Sripriya Eachempati
    ST6 Paediatrics, NNUH

  • Psychological Interventions have a place in Management of Paediatric Headache

    The management of headache should be imbued with a psychological understanding that is not sufficiently emphasised in the ADC review by Whitehouse & Agrawal. Like all pain disorders, headache has an important psychological component, which should be acknowledged as part of the assessment in order to open up a conversation that may lead to an effective non-pharmacological intervention. The recent review of treatments for paediatric migraine (Ng et al, 2017) confirms the power of one specific model of intervention in relation to one specific headache diagnosis. A creative use of mental health expertise in the Headache Clinic has the potential to change practice in relation to a range of presentations.

    A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of the Efficacy of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy for the Management of Pediatric Migraine
    Qin Xiang Ng, MBBS; Nandini Venkatanarayanan, BMedSci, BMBS; Lakshmi Kumar, MBBS
    Headache, 2017;57(3):349-362.

  • Re: 'medically unexplained symptom' means that the doctor has a problem
    David Cottrell

    Dr Kraemer is correct in pointing out that the presence of a child mental health team integrated into the paediatric team in the hospital is, where resources allow, often the best way to manage children and young people with medically unexplained symptoms, and indeed with a range of other physical and psychological presentations. See also Cottrell, 2015, http://adc.bmj.com/content/100/4/308

    Conflict of Interest:...

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  • 'medically unexplained symptom' means that the doctor has a problem
    S KRAEMER

    Professor Cottrell's guidance for paediatricians confronted with patients whose symptoms cannot be explained minimises the real problem that arises when a mental health opinion may be required. He says "the use if words like 'psychological' is unhelpful and is associated with making things up" which is indeed the case. A very useful study by Furness et al (2009) interviewed hospital paediatricians and child health nurses...

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  • Codeine in paediatrics: CYP2D6 maturation matters, also for other drugs.
    Karel Allegaert

    K Allegaert

    Intensive Care and Department of Surgery, Erasmus MC-Sophia Children's Hospital, Rotterdam, The Netherlands and Department of Development and Regeneration, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium Karel.allegaert@uzleuven.be

    We have read with great interest the review article on the pharmacology, prescribing and controversies of codeine in paediatrics and we agree to a very large extent to the position t...

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  • The YOURR Project: Young People's Opinions Underpinning Rheumatology Research.
    Janet E McDonagh

    Dear Editor, we would like to congratulate Dr Bate et al for so eloquently highlighting the importance of public and patient involvement specifically in paediatric research [1]. We would like to further the discussion by highlighting the involvement of adolescents and young adults who by virtue of age may be in either paediatric and/or adult-focussed research. Mattila et al reported that young people in this age group who...

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  • Re:A different view of studies with deferred consent
    Kerry Woolfall

    The author makes an interesting point about the current legislation and automatic inclusion of data in trials where prior informed consent is not possible.

    EU legislation focuses on when research without prior consent (RWPC) can occur and the need to obtain consent for continued participation, but does not cover the options for use of data collected prior to consent. The exception to this is where consent is not pr...

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  • How to interpret malaria tests
    Aubrey J Cunnington

    Dyer et al. wrote an instructive review on how to interpret malaria tests (1). However there are two important caveats in the interpretation of these tests which they did not mention. First, a positive test does not necessarily confirm a diagnosis of malaria. Second, a positive test does not necessarily mean that malaria is the only diagnosis.

    Strictly speaking, the tests described by Dyer et al. are parasite de...

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  • Extending the spectrum of hypernatraemia
    oscar, m jolobe

    Dear Editor,

    The recognition of endocrine-related hypernatraemia would be enhanced if account were taken, not only of biochemically overt hypernatraemia(1), but also of the possibility that this biochemical derangement might be masked by co-existing inability to excrete salt-free water. The clinical counterpart of this phenomenon is encapsulated in the statement "the symptoms of cranial diabetes insipidus may be ma...

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