Febrile convulsion and emotional stress

Gökhan Aydemir* and Ercüment Bedir

Aksaz Military Hospital, 48150, Marmaris, Mugla, Turkey.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: draydemir73@yahoo.com. Tel: +905062392673. Fax: 0902524171111.

Accepted 1 February, 2010

 Abstract

Acute symptomatic convulsions triggered by the fever without the presence of the central nervous system infections or any electrolyte imbalance in the children aged between six months and six years, not having previously known neurological anomalies are called febrile convulsion (FC). In this study, the effect of the emotional stress factor on the febrile convulsion was investigated. In the study, 150 patients, newly diagnosed in the outpatients’ clinics of pediatrics at Aksaz Military Hospital and Ahu Hetman Hospital, were followed up and a questionnaire study was carried out with their parents to assess the emotional stress factor. Additionally, in a daycare center located in Marmaris town in Mugla province, 30 children aged between 2 - 5 years were chosen to establish a control group and all the children were observed from September 2006 to May 2009, to understand the effect of the emotional stress factor on FC. The needed consents were received from the authorities; and, it was warranted that the name of the daycare center would never been used in any way. The mean age of the children included in the study was 38 months. The rate of those having sleeping problems was 36%. The percentage of those attending a nursery or daycare center was 41.4%; those hospitalized before for any infection or disorder were in the percentage of 36%; the rate of the slowness of the psychomotor development denoted by the family was 36.7%. It was determined that 40% of the primary relatives of the children in the study had FC history and 36.7% of the children had FC history in the second-degree relatives. It was found that 60.7% (91) of the children had affection (high degree emotional dependency) for their mothers or fathers; that 36% (54) of the children had been away from their mothers or fathers for a long time for work or such reasons; and that 61.3% (92) of the children had a strong emotional nature by the description of their families. FCs occur by getting the genetic and environmental factors together. Among the environmental factors, there are subjective factors such as sleeplessness and emotional stress as well as the admitted factors e.g. age, fever, being preterm, hospitalization in the newborn period, attending a daycare center and tardiness in mental-motor development. FC events in the patients who had no environmental or genetic risk factors showed that the emotional stress was one of the prominent reasons and FC could occur after strong emotional traumas.

Key words: Febrile convulsion, emotional stress.