Children become a problem when they do not meet expectations: expectations of their genes, their development, their behaviour. The theme of SPEKTRUM’s autumn issue, 'Problem children?', is therefore ambivalent and posed as a question. For sometimes the problem lies in exaggerated expectations of parents, teachers and a society whose new information technologies and communication media can overwhelm perfectly normally predisposed and developing children. ADHD or DMDD are diagnoses that can be connected to exaggerated expectations as much as to the sensory overload of our modern world. When selecting the cheeky girl as the cover image for 'Problem children' the humorous aspect of the photo was initially factored in: it’s not all that bad! At that time, however, the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA) latest diagnostic category for children of our era was still relatively unknown: 'Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder' (DMDD), or 'severe and recurrent verbal and/or behavioural temper outbursts'.
Resie Moonen, with her case of a highly gifted and very angry lanthanide girl, draws attention to the questionable nature of such a diagnosis. Further contributions by Paresh Varsani, Dinesh Chauhan and Wyka Feige show how often parents today seek homeopathic help for tantrums and aggression in their children. Treatment is always individual and the remedies come from all kingdoms of nature. Using her plant table, Michal Yakir finds the appropriate remedy for a constantly irritable girl.
Alongside behaviour, school performance is a major problem area. Paediatrician Heiner Frei presents case reports devoted to the topic of 'school failure', this multifaceted phenomenon having various causes such as learning disorders, poor concentration, lack of motivation, anxiety or hyperactivity.
Physical and mental developmental disorders have always occupied paediatricians. Bettina Baltacis reports competently and warmly from her work in the multidisciplinary team of the first Austrian Down syndrome specialist clinic. The possible influence of multiple vaccinations on child development and the usefulness of vaccine nosodes are discussed by Sunil Anand; Friedrich P. Graf describes the particular danger additionally posed by aluminium as a vaccine adjuvant.
With the relationship between adoptive parents and children, Andreas Richter addresses a common and particularly difficult problem. Attachment disorders, if unaccompanied and untreated, can easily lead to a traumatic family situation.
The excerpt in this issue of SPEKTRUM is by Anna Koller-Wilmkings, whose exciting overview from her paediatric practice presents the full range of our subject, from developmental and behavioural disorders through psychiatric problems to severe physical pathologies, from well-known remedies to lesser-known remedies, from classical repertorisation to the sensation method.
All the authors in this issue of SPEKTRUM show how healing and successful homeopathy can help children, not only in the field of classical disease pictures but also with the harmful excesses of our modern age.
