The Increase of Shaken Baby Syndrome and the Recession

There was an article featured in http://msnbc.com on April 30, 2010 which exposed the increase in the number of children and babies suffering with head trauma. The numbers rose to 55% when the recession began in 2007 which caused unemployment, homes in foreclosure and decrease funding for programs to assist with the prevention in child abuse. The third of the cases are children from age 1 to 6.

Shaken baby syndrome is defined as a forceful shaking of an infant or child for as little as 5 seconds causing the child’s head to rotate around the neck uncontrollably. The violent movement pitches the child’s brain back and forth within the skull, sometimes rupturing blood vessels and nerves throughout the brain tissue. Blindness, brain damage, seizures, and severe learning difficulties are common in children who survive. The fathers or boyfriends were responsible for this injury in most cases. There were budget cuts in child protection workers which is a critical need to monitor families and caregivers.

A 19 month old child in Pennsylvania was a victim of this syndrome when his mother’s boyfriend, Mr. Turner decided to bite the baby when the child bit him. Then he confessed punching the child and shaking him violently. The child had a broken arm and marks on his neck. The baby’s mother, Ms. Shirley testified that she left her child with Mr. Turner while she performed an errand. The child spent five days on a ventilator at the Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh before he passed away as a result of head trauma. Mr. Turner was sentenced to life in prison for the baby’s murder. The disturbing statistics revealed 63% of the children were admitted to a pediatric intensive care unit and about 16% died as a result of their injuries. Researchers reported that 90% of the children were enrolled in Medicaid programs.

Due to the recession, it’s predicted there are going to be a large number of injuries towards children. As the cuts in programs continue, the stress levels among parents are going to increase. Parents should be alert to other services that are available such as parenting and support groups which are conducted online. This is not the traditional counseling arena, but we as professionals have to begin to think outside the box to seek other resources.

A Breakthrough Drug for Retardation Syndrome

The New York Times published an article on April 29, 2010 about an experimental drug which is improving the behaviors found in retardation and autism especially Fragile X syndrome, the most common inherited cause of mental disabilities. Fragile X has mental effects ranging from mild learning disabilities to retardation such as not speaking. In addition, the physical effects include elongated faces, large jaws, big ears, and enlarged testes. It affects mostly affects boys due to one arm of the X chromosome seems nearly broken, with part hanging by a thread. Statistically, 10% to 15% of autism cases result from Fragile X syndrome which was discovered in 1991.
The drug was made by a Swiss pharmaceutical giant Novartis who spent three decades conducting research. A trial was conducted with only a few dozen patients. Dr. Mark C. Fishman, president of the Novartis Institute of Mental Health was notified of the Novartis trial results and stated the drug will not be commercially available and could fail in further trials. For ethical reasons, Novartis tested the drug only in adults but the company believes this treatment may be effective in young children who brains are more likely to respond rapidly when barriers to learning are removed. The Novaris trial which began in 2008 in Europe had the researcher measuring behaviors such as hyperactivity, repetitive motions, social withdrawal and inappropriate speech. Dr. Fishman was reluctant to make this public because he felt more experiments are needed.
The article illustrated that only five researchers in the world were working toward a cure. These numbers are low considering how many children and adults are diagnosed with some version of retardation syndrome. Due to budget limitations, many agencies are faced with eliminated programs to assist with support services and healthcare assistance. It’s an urgent cause which needs immediate attention by the medical and healthcare professionals.

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