Would you know how to use an EpiPen (epinephrine injection) if someone collapsed with a severe allergic reaction? The recent inquest into the death of Nasar Ahmed, a 14-year-old boy from North London, who died from an allergic reaction to his school dinner, revealed teachers had his EpiPen in their hands, but did not know […]
City life may substantially increase a young person’s risk of having psychosis, including hearing voices and feeling extremely paranoid, according to a new study from King’s College London and Duke University. Published today in Schizophrenia Bulletin, the study found that British adolescents raised in major cities in England and Wales were over 40 per cent more likely to […]
Fathers who interact more with their children in their first few months of life could have a positive impact on their baby’s cognitive development. In a study, published in the Infant Mental Health Journal, researchers from Imperial College London, King’s College London and Oxford University looked at how fathers interacted with their babies at three […]
With summer fast approaching, children’s skin is particularly vulnerable to the effects of UV radiation, says consultant dermatologist Dr Anjali Mahto, who is also a spokesperson for the British Skin Foundation. ‘Babies below the age of six months have little melanin, or pigment, in their skin and their skin is also too sensitive for the […]
My decision to get involved with developing gene therapy for neurological disorders came about because my own daughter, Ornella, 11, was born with a rare genetic condition known as Sanfilippo Syndrome, or mucopolysaccharidosis (MPS-IIIA). One in 70,000 babies is born with this life-limiting condition that results from a genetic mutation of a particular enzyme and […]
The World Health Organisation is currently vaccinating 116 million African children against the preventable disease, polio. This week, 190,000 vaccinators are on the ground tackling the last remaining stronghold of polio across West and Central Africa. All children under the age of five in countries including Chad, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Sierra […]
Despite acne being so common, there are still many misconceptions that surround it. Myths include that sufferers are dirty or don’t wash properly, that their diet is poor or that they will ‘grow out of it’. These myths play a huge part in the stigma surrounding the condition and the perception of it by non-sufferers. […]
Is birth by pre-labour Caesarean an extreme example of stress deprivation? In the framework of our cultural conditioning, ”stress’ has a negative connotation: we must avoid stressful situations. Meanwhile, in the current scientific context, it appears that stress hormones have multiple roles to play and the concept of ”stress deprivation” has recently emerged in scholarly […]
Studies show that around 79% of autistic people have mental health issues and rate their anxiety as the number one problem in their lives. 63% meet the criteria for an anxiety disorder. Indeed, the key patient group for child and adolescent psychiatrists is autism. How can people with a lifelong neurodevelopmental disorder like autism, affecting […]
I am not an apologist for Andrew Wakefield, the doctor who proposed a link between the MMR vaccine and autism via the guts nearly 20 years ago. Since then Wakefield has had his licence to practice withdrawn and the link declared disproved. But I do feel that we should not simply shut down the discussion […]