Nightmares occur during changes in the sleep cycle, and are included in the group of conditions known as the ‘arousal disorders’. They are the same as the bad dreams and nightmares that adults have. The child may wake suddenly during the night, frightened and distressed, and will often cry out for the parents. The child [...]

This technique also applies to people who dissociate first and become frightened by the altered state. ‘What’s happening to me. Here it comes again. I’m going insane’. We can stop the escalation into anxiety and panic simply by being aware. ‘I’m dissociating.’ I’ve just gone into a trance state’. When we acknowledge what is happening [...]

This “Readiness Factor” has more to do with the success of all of the methods than any other factor. This cannot be emphasized enough and should certainly not be scoffed at. Too often parents will succumb to feelings of guilt or to pressure from other people. They try something—usually whatever has been “suggested” m often—and [...]

If the pelvic muscles (rather than the muscle of the bladder itself) are weakened, you can get what we call stress incontinence. Here small amounts of urine come away when you sneeze, cough or laugh. This is much more common in women, whose pelvic muscles can be weakened by difficult childbirths or pelvic surgery. Oestrogen [...]

A technique known as Lord’s procedure is increasingly used. It is postulated that there is a tight band of tissue, just inside the anal margin, forming part of the sphincter muscle which keeps the bowel opening closed. Under a deep but short-acting general anaesthetic, the surgeon distends the sphincter, disrupting this tight band. At the [...]

The periods may cease suddenly but this is unusual. More often, there is a reduction in the amount of bleeding and occasional periods are missed. The total change may take several months or even a year or two. Sometimes the reverse happens and the periods become heavier and more frequent, due to some associated disorder. [...]

Very active people need to eat much larger amounts of carbohydrate than usual. You may feel that you already know a lot about diet. But athletes, like everyone else, can have their facts wrong. Many foods that you believe are good sources of carbohydrate are even better sources of fat. For example, chocolate is 55 [...]

Summary of main points. • The psychological understanding of obesity has moved through several phases in recent times. • Behaviour modification techniques were initially used widely to change habits. • Cognitive approaches have been used to change thought patterns. • Rational Emotive Therapy (RED is an example of a ‘pop’ psychology approach to changing thought [...]

Thermogenic responses Thermogenesis describes increases in the MR above RMR in response to things such as food intake, exposure to cold or heat and the body’s physiological responses to fear or stress. Thermic effect of food. The thermic effect of food (TEF), also called diet-induced thermo-genesis, represents increases in MR above RMR resulting from the [...]

Some forms of diarrhoea are emotionally based. The intestine is a good barometer of the body’s inner feelings and of the brain in particular. These are called ‘non specific diarrhoea’. ‘Most of the young children whose mothers say they have loose, frequent or bulky stools do not suffer from malabsorption. Their physical growth is normal [...]