Journal of Child and Adolescent Behavior
Open Access

Research Article

Dysfunctional Behaviors in Children and Adolescents with Neurocardiogenic Syncope

¹Department of Neuroscience and Neurorehabilitation, Clinic Psychology Unit, Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital, Rome, Italy

²Department of Paediatric Cardiology and Cardiac Surgery, Paediatric Arrhythmia and Syncope Unit, Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital, Rome, Italy

³Emergency Department, Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital, Rome, Italy

⁴Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital, Rome, Italy

*Corresponding Author:

Grimaldi Capitello
Department of Neuroscience and Neurorehabilitation
Clinic Psychology Unit, Bambino Gesù Children’s Hospital
Piazza S.Onofrio, 4, 00165, Rome, Italy
Tel: 0039 06 68592179
Fax: +39.06.68592781
E-mail: teresa.grimaldi@opbg.net

Received Date: July 21, 2014; Accepted Date: August 29, 2014; Published Date: September 01, 2014

Citation: Grimaldi Capitello T, Placidi S, Mambro CD, Gimigliano F, Vallone R et al. (2014) Dysfunctional Behaviors in Children and Adolescents with Neurocardiogenic Syncope. J Child Adolesc Behav 2:156. doi:10.4172/2375-4494.1000156

Copyright: © 2014 Capitello TG, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Objective: We evaluate a large sample of children and adolescent with suspected neurocardiogenic syncope (NCS) and we compared the results with a healthy sample, with the aim to reveal a possible correlation between syncopal events and dysfunctional behaviors. Methods: A total number of ninety two patients with NCS (median age 14.7 years) were evaluated with Head-Up Tilt Test (HUTT) and psychological assessment at the same time. The results of the ninety two patients who underwent HUTT and completed psychological tests were compared with a normative group. The risk of psychosocial dysfunctions was assessed by using the standardized Italian version of the Child Behavior Checklist in Youth Self Report (YSR). Results: Compared with normative group, patients with NCS reported worse scores to the internalizing and total problem scales and to the syndrome scales of anxiety problems, depressive withdrawal problems, somatic complaints, social problems and thought problems. Conclusions: Patients with NCS present major emotional and behavioral dysfunctions than healthy sample. Our findings call for additional investigations on the possible pathophysiological association between psychosocial problems and the reflex mechanism that produces syncope. Furthermore, future clinical studies are necessary to plan an interventional strategy and optimize the clinical management.

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