Yemen crisis, which has been going on for more than six years, represents one of the most gruesome human plights in the modern history, especially children.

This research aimed to present a comprehensive view of Yemeni children’s studies during the ongoing war period, to come up with a comprehensive base that concerns humanitarians, researchers, decision-makers, and general public at large about the reality of the predicament of Yemeni child.

We searched databases and identified 373 articles, of which 68 were included in this review. Review of literature between 2014 and 2020 is taken from academic sources, multilateral organizations, donors, and governmental and non-governmental organizations. The data are analyzed by date and governorates.

We chose 68 articles and divided them according to the diseases and health conditions as follows: infectious diseases (15 studies), non-infectious diseases (10 studies), blood-related diseases (7 studies), oral and dental problems (12 studies), accidents and injuries (2 studies), health system (16 studies), family and community (6 studies). Moreover, the studies were divided geographically as follows: 7 studies that were almost comprehensive for all governorates; additional studies were conducted for Amanat Al Asimah (21 studies), Taiz (12 studies), Aden and Al Hudaydah (7 studies for each), Dhamar and Ibb (6 studies for each), Abyan and Lahij (2 study for each). As for Al Bayda, Marib, Sana’a, and Socotra, each of them had one study.

Our assessment revealed that the ongoing Yemen crisis is underrated and largely neglected. The studies conducted so far do match the ground reality both in terms of inclusiveness and numbers.

To electrophysiologically determine the impact of moderate to severe chronic hypoxia (H) resulting from a wide array of CHD (HCHD) conditions on the integrity of brainstem function.

Applying brainstem auditory-evoked response methodology, 30 chronically afflicted HCHD patients, who already had undergone heart surgery, were compared to 28 healthy control children (1–15 yo) matched by age, gender and socioeconomic condition. Blood oxygen saturation was clinically determined and again immediately before brainstem auditory-evoked response testing.

Among HCHD children, auditory wave latencies (I, III and V) were significantly longer (medians: I, 2.02 ms; III, 4.12 ms, and; V, 6.30 ms) compared to control (medians: I, 1.67ms; III, 3.72 ms, and; V, 5.65 ms), as well as interpeak intervals (HCHD medians: I-V, 4.25 ms, and; III-V, 2.25ms; control medians: I-V, 3.90 ms and, III-V, 1.80 ms) without significant differences in wave amplitudes between groups. A statistically significant and inverse correlation between average blood oxygen saturation of each group (control, 94%; HCHD, 78%) and their respective wave latencies and interpeak intervals was found.

As determined by brainstem auditory-evoked responses, young HCHD patients manifestly show severely altered neuronal conductivity in the auditory pathway strongly correlated with their hypoxic condition. These observations are strongly supported by different brainstem neurological and image studies showing that alterations, either in microstructure or function, result from the condition of chronic hypoxia in CHD. The non-altered wave amplitudes are indicative of relatively well-preserved neuronal relay nuclei.

To examine the association between food security and feeding practices in Latinx parents of pre-school-aged children and examine possible effect modification by parental self-efficacy

Cross-sectional assessment using the US Department of Agriculture screener for food insecurity as the exposure and sub-scales of the Comprehensive Feeding Practices Questionnaire as the outcome with the General Self-Efficacy Scale as an effect modifier. Non-parametric descriptive statistics were used to compare groups based on food security status.

Two Latinx communities with low socioeconomic status in Texas in 2017 and in Oregon in 2018-2019.

Latinx parents of preschool aged children, English and Spanish speaking. Dyads were excluded if they had moderate-severe developmental disabilities, a seizure disorder with a restrictive diet, or taking medications known to influence typical growth.

Of the 168 families in Oregon, 65 (38%) reported food insecurity, and 10 (21%) of the 48 families in Texas reported food insecurity. Food security was associated with greater parental monitoring practices in both the Texas and Oregon samples. We observed no differences in creating a healthy home food environment by food security status in either sample. Parental general self-efficacy showed evidence of effect modification in Oregon - only parents with lower self-efficacy showed a significant association between food security and feeding practices.

Latinx parents of preschool children experience high levels of food insecurity, which are associated with maladaptive parental feeding practices. Greater parental general self-efficacy moderates this association and could buffer the effects of food insecurity on children’s health.

Trauma, stress, and attachment problems are negatively related to the development of mentalization. Children raised in institutional care are more exposed to these difficulties, therefore the development of population-specific interventions that aim to improve mentalization skills would be highly desirable.

Our goal is to develop mentalization-based intervention programs for specific age groups (9-13 years, 14-18 years, and adult staff members of institutional care centers) - that support children’s and adolescents’ social functioning and conflict resolution skills.

The mentalization-based intervention targeting institutional care staff was launched first. Due to the pandemic, this intervention was executed online with two intervention (N = 17) and two passive control (N = 15) groups. Before and after the intervention, participants completed a demographic questionnaire, the Parenting Sense of Competence Scale, the Reflective Functioning Questionnaire, the Mini Oldenburg Burnout Inventory, The Strengths, and Difficulties Questionnaire, and the Ways of Coping Questionnaire.

The intervention protocol and our results will be shown at the conference. There was no significant difference between the two intervention and two passive control groups in the demographic features. Mentalization uncertainty and burnout was positively related(rs(23) = .42, p = .034), while mentalization uncertainty and parental competence was negatively associated (rs(23) = - .41, p = .041).

The intervention program will be fine-tuned and optimized based on the results of the pilot study. In the next interventions, we plan to focus on the issues that the staff perceived as most difficult and to conduct interventions among the children.

No significant relationships.

Post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a mental health condition that’s triggered by a psychotraumatic event .

The aim of our study was to investigate the clinical manifestations of PTSD in the pediatric population.

This is a descriptive cross-sectional study carried out on children over the age of 7 and victims of a traumatic event that had occurred at least one month before. They were recruited from August 2020 to April 2021, in child psychiatry department. The clinical manifestations were evaluated using the Clinician Administered PTSD Scale Child and Adolescent version for DSM 5 (CAPS CA5) in Tunisian dialect. The statistical processing of these data was carried out using SPSS 26 software.

We recruited 101 children who had experienced a traumatic event which was in 35.6% physical assault, 47.5% sexual assault and in 16.8 % exposure to death. The mean age was 10.7 years at the onset of traumatic event and 11.74 years at the interview. We noted in our patients a female predominance at 64.4%. Diagnosis of PTSD according to the diagnostic criteria of the DSM5 was retained in 54.5% of cases. Intrusive symptoms were present in 81.2%, with 66.3% of involuntary, intrusive memories. Persistent avoidance of stimuli was noted in 80.2%. 71.3% of cases suffered from negative cognition and mood. We found in 66.3% marked alterations in trauma-related arousal and reactivity. Resulting in clinicialy significant distress in71.3%.

Recognizing PTSD symptoms is essential for diagnosis to initiate specialized care and reduce impairment at this critical age.

No significant relationships.

Good quality parenting in early childhood is reliably associated with positive mental and physical health over the lifespan.

The hypothesis that early parenting quality has significant long-term financial benefits has not been previously tested.

Design: Longitudinal study with follow-up from 2012 to 2016; UK multicentre study cohort. Participants: 174 young people drawn from 2 samples, one at moderate risk of poor outcomes and one at high risk, assessed aged 4–6 years then followed up in early adolescence (mean age 12.1 years). Measures: The primary outcome was total costs: health, social care, extra school support, out-of-home placements and family-born expenditure, determined through semistructured economic interviews. Early parenting quality was independently assessed through direct observation of parent–child interaction.

Costs were lower for youths exposed to more sensitive parenting (most sensitive quartile mean £1,619, least sensitive quartile mean £21,763; p < .001). Costs were spread across personal family expenditure and education, health, social and justice services. The cost difference remained significant after controlling for several potential confounders. These included demographic variables (family poverty, parental education); exposure to child abuse; and child/young person variables including level of antisocial behaviour in both childhood and adolescence, IQ and attachment security.

This study is the first showing that more sensitive early parental care predicts lower costs to society many years later, independent of poverty, child and youth antisocial behaviour levels and IQ. The findings provide novel evidence for the public health impact of early caregiving quality and likely financial benefits of improving it.

No significant relationships.

Despite youth’s high Global Burden of Disease there is a substantial service delivery gap between this population’s urgent needs and their access to health services. Because attention has remained under-prioritized (Babatunde et al., 2019), youth typically do not receive the treatment they require, i.e., they present an unmet need (Barwick et al., 2013). This is particularly problematic given that untreated mental disorders (MD) are associated with short-term and long-term functional deterioration.

To determine the level of functioning of children who receive mental healthcare in the selected psychiatric hospitals of Mexico.

A cross-sectional study was conducted during 2018-2020. Sample of children who received mental healthcare at the time of the study. Questionnaire for the evaluation of disability WHODAS 2.0 (World Health Organization-Disability Assessment Schedule) was applied. T test and analysis of variance were applied to know the differences of means of the variables and indicators.

Sample (n= 397), 63% were boys. Mean (SD) for Age: 12 (3.6) and schooling: 5.8 (3.6). 51% (n =202) of children reported having a generic diagnosis for hyperkinetic disorders and 34% depressive disorder. WHODAS scores: significant differences in the functioning domains (Do). Mean and (SD) for Do5 Life activities domestic: 45 (26.7); Do6 Social participation:37 (20.6); and Do1 cognition: 36.6 (19.3). Figure 1.

The children with MD are more vulnerable due to the associated disability and it requires specific heath interventions adapted to their mental health care needs. References: 1) Babatunde et al. (2021). Glob.Soc.Welfare 8, 29–46. 2) Barwick et al. (2013). J.evid.based.soc.work, 10(4), 338–352.

No significant relationships.

Cancer is often a diagnosis that generates instability in many Tunisian families. Children of parents with cancer may respond differently to the treatment. Communication about cancer in Tunisian families needs sometimes professional intervention mainly with children.

We aimed to assess psychological impact of cancer parents on their children.

We interviewed 103 parents of children aged 6-18 years between July and December 2020. Children were not interviewed as they were not allowed into the chemotherapy treatment rooms. The questionnaire included items about emotional and behavioral impact on children.

Patients’ characteristics are are shown in Table 1. In our study, 85 patients (82.5%) told their children they were « sick ». Among the children who were not aware of their parent’s condition, there were significantly more preschoolers, p=0.001. The reasons given by the parents in these cases were the young age of their children (60%) and the fear of generating emotional and behavioral trauma and threatening their psychosocial equilibrium (40%). In our participants 88.3% reported communication disorders with their children when referring to the parental illness.

Parental cancer may have unexpected consequences on children’s behavior which should be handled by a specialist , hence efforts should be made for early detection and better understanding of these disorders.

No significant relationships.

Headucate: University of East Anglia, a university student-led society, was founded almost 10 years ago by medical students to promote mental health education and raise awareness and funds for mental health causes.

Headucate aims to spread mental health awareness and reduce stigma by working with schools, universities, other societies and charities internationally.

Headucate delivers workshops for children aged 4-18 in primary and secondary schools, community and youth groups and university students. These sessions were delivered in-person pre-COVID and online as interactive webinars since 2020, to spark discussion around mental health, and provide information about the variety of supports available for young people.

In the past decade, Headucate UEA has grown to become one of UEA’s largest student-led groups boasting over 175 members in 2020-2021 from all courses. Within the online world, Headucate’s events have reached worldwide. The initiative has received national recognition, won national student awards and has expanded to set up three further Headucate branches nationwide. Outreach has accelerated and the school workshops reached over 1,000 students in the past year.

Headucate has grown from strength to strength and has plans to continue to develop, with passionate student drivers behind the project. Expansion of the project could include a national mental health university directory, bringing together like-minded mental health advocate students around the country and creating new Headucate branches across the country. To further develop, Headucate could expand outreach to the elderly community as discussed by previous committee.

No significant relationships.

We present a 9-year-old girl with celiac disease who attends a Health Center referred by her pediatrician for rituals. Her mother describes rituals from early childhood that have been intensified by the death of her grandmother from pancreatic cancer. Since then, thoughts of gluten contamination and behaviors aimed at avoiding such contamination have increased. For example, not using the common household towel and not eating until all the guests have washed their hands. If the patient does not carry out these actions, she presents significant discomfort, crying and screaming until it is done. In addition, such behaviors take up a significant amount of time.

To review the literature of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) in children.

Literature review of scientific articles searching in Pubmed. We considered articles in English and Spanish.

Cognitive Behavioral Therapy and Sertraline up to 50mg were started. After several weeks the frequency of behaviors aimed at avoiding gluten contamination begins to decrease; as well as the anguish if these are not carried out.

OCD in childhood can present characteristics that differentiate it from OCD in adulthood, such as difficulty detecting obsessions and that children do not usually consider thoughts as unreal or excessive. Therefore, it is a real challenge, having to carry out an adequate differential diagnosis with other entities such as specific phobias, for adequate subsequent management.

No significant relationships.

Infectious diseases can disrupt the environment in which children live and have negative consequences for the well-being, development and mental health of this population.

Our aim is to compare the number and diagnoses of patients admitted during the first COVID-19 pandemic year to patients admitted during the same period in the previous year.

Retrospective observational study of patients admitted between March 1, 2020 and February 29, 2021 and the analogous period of 2019-2020 in a child psychiatry unit. Microsoft Excel was used for descriptive statistics.

In our first pandemic year, there were 47.9% less admissions to our inpatient unit (n=717), comparing to the previous year (n=1376). Regarding the outpatient-type evaluations, there were 37.7% more admissions than the previous year (n=1813). Considering the fact that the number of inpatiens was limited in 2020 due to the restrictive measures imposed, most of our patients were consulted on an outpatient basis. During the 5 weeks nationwide lockdown, 72 children were consulted, 42.8% representing psychiatry emergencies. Regarding the diagnoses made in the whole pandemic year, disorders of psychological development were the most common, with almost half of the total of admissions (44.4%). The number of autistic outpatients in the pandemic year (n=1004) was almost double than the one before (n=572).

Even though there was a reduction of admissions to the child psychiatry inpatient unit during the first pandemic year, we did not identify major differences regarding the discharge diagnoses comparing to the year before.

No significant relationships.

Deficient emotion regulation is a common and impairing area of difficulty among children and adolescents with externalizing disorders. Emotion focused cognitive behavioral therapy ECBT is a form of CBT that is suggested to be employed to improve dysregulation of anxiety and other kind of emotions in anxious youth.

Examine the efficacy of an Emotion-focused Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy (ECBT) inspired program on emotional regulation difficulties and behavioral problems in children and adolescents with externalizing disorders

We conducted a cross-sectional comparative experimental study. Subjects were 50 patients exhibiting behavioral disorders aged 9 to 18 years , with a diagnosis of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), oppositional defiant disorder (ODD), and conduct disorder (CD).Participants were assigned to ECBT and control groups. ECBT group contributed in 12-h weekly sessions within ECBT-inspired program. The control group received standard care. To assess emotion-related competencies, children were administered the emotion regulation questionnaire (ERQ-CA) and the alexithymia questionnaire for children(AQC). Parents completed the Child Behavior Checklist(CBCL) to measure youth externalizing problems. Tests were administered in pre- and post-test to all subjects. Both groups were matched for age, sex and educationnal level. Comparison of pre- and post-test results was performed using the Student’s t-test.

ECBT demonstrated a significant difference in the reduction of behavioral problems. ECBT effectively increased adaptive emotion regulation strategies (cognitive reappraisal) in the post-test. ECBT also reduced alexithymia scores, particularly difficulty identifying feelings, and externally oriented thinking.

ECBT demonstrated promising initial effectiveness in addressing emotion regulation deficits of children with externalizing behaviors

No significant relationships.

The spread of media multitasking in the modern world determines researcher’s interest in studying the neurocognitive development features of children who strive to act in this mode since childhood (Minear et al., 2013; Uncapher et al., 2016).

The aim is to study neuropsychological profiles of children and adolescents with single-tasking and multitasking.

Quasi-experiment was conducted among 154 children of three age groups (7-10; 11-13; 14-16) and included simultaneous tasks performance on a computer and a smartphone. Neuropsychological indicators were studied (Akhutina, 2016): programming and control, serial organization, visual and auditory-speech memory, neurodynamics. The behavior social modeling and executive functions were studied with WISC (Information and Comprehension subtests) and Dots-test (Akhutina et al., 2017). The multitaskers groups were identified according to the number of returns to tasks: single-taskers (42.9%), single-taskers with multitasking elements (1-2 returns) (40.9%), multitaskers (3 and more returns) (16.2%).

The number of multitaskers increased by adolescence. In children aged 7-10 single-taskers were more productive than multitaskers in programming, switchability, the volume of auditory-speech and visual memory, neurodynamics. They performed Dots-test faster. At the age of 11-13, multitaskers had higher scores on the Comprehension subtest and higher verbal activity when composing a story. Regulation and switchability errors in multitaskers aged 11-13 were episodic. At the age of 14-16 multitaskers were more productive in some parameters of switchability.

In primary school single-taskers have a neurocognitive advantage, but by adolescence differences are leveled, and in some parameters multitaskers are ahead of single-taskers. The study was funded by RFBR, project No. 19-29-14181.

The reported study was funded by RFBR, project No. 19-29-14181.