Adolescent bullying, cannabis use and emerging psychotic experiences: a longitudinal general population study

BACKGROUND

Using longitudinal and prospective measures of psychotic experiences during adolescence, we assessed the risk of developing psychosis in three groups showing low, increasing and elevated psychotic experiences associated with bullying by peers and cannabis use in a UK sample of adolescents. Method Data were collected by self-report from 1098 adolescents (mean age 13.6 years; 60.9% boys) at five separate time points, equally separated by 6 months, across a 24-month period. General growth mixture modelling identified three distinct trajectories of adolescents reporting psychotic experiences: elevated, increasing and low.

RESULTS

Controlling for cannabis use, bullying by peers significantly predicted change in psychotic experiences between Time 2 and Time 5 in adolescents belonging to the increasing group. No effect was found for the elevated or low groups. Controlling for bullying, an earlier age of cannabis use and cannabis use more than twice significantly predicted change in psychotic experiences in adolescents belonging to the increasing group. Cannabis use at any age was significantly associated with subsequent change in psychotic experiences in the low group. Reverse causal associations were examined and there was no evidence for psychotic experiences at Time 1 predicting a subsequent change in cannabis use between Times 2 and 5 in any trajectory group.

CONCLUSIONS

Bullying by peers and cannabis use are associated with adolescents' reports of increasing psychotic experiences over time. Further research into the longitudinal development of psychosis in adolescence and the associated risk factors would allow for early intervention programmes to be targeted more precisely.

Acute necrotizing encephalopathy presenting as a basal ganglia syndrome

Acute necrotizing encephalopathy is a relatively new disease. The characteristic clinical findings are of febrile illness followed by rapid deterioration in mental status and seizures. The hallmark of the disease is multifocal bilateral symmetric lesions affecting the thalamus, hypothalamus, brainstem tegmentum, cerebral white matter, and cerebellum. The etiology is unknown, but immune-mediated mechanism was suggested. We present a 12-year-old previously healthy girl who developed increased sleepiness progressing to stupor and coma. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) of the brain showed the characteristic findings previously described in acute necrotizing encephalopathy. Her mental status improved dramatically with steroid treatment, and the MRI findings resolved completely within 6 months. Following the acute illness, she developed a complex neuropsychiatric disorder consistent with basal ganglia syndrome.

Acute onset of infantile spinal muscular atrophy

Two patients with acute generalized weakness and areflexia are presented. The electrophysiologic studies in both revealed evidence of decreased conduction velocity and mixed axonal and demyelinating neuropathy, suggestive of the diagnosis of Guillain-Barré syndrome. The young ages of the patients and their failure to respond to immunoglobulin therapy were the major clues to the final diagnosis of spinal muscular atrophy type I. Blood for DNA study revealed homozygous deletion mutation in exons 7 and 8 of the survival motor neuron gene. This diagnosis should be considered in every child under 1 year of age who presents with acute weakness because Guillain-Barré syndrome in this age group is rare.

Congenital aorto-caval fistula in the newborn: a case report

The authors report a rare case of congenital fistula between the distal aspect of the descending aorta and the inferior vena cava. The clinical features of this aortocaval fistula is being described as well as the preoperative diagnostic workup, the intraoperative findings, and the complicated postoperative course and treatment.