-In order to compare and contrast the efficacy of haloperidol, carbamazepine, and valproic acid in the treatment of Sydenham´s chorea a prospective study including 18 cases of this disorder was undertaken. Age of patients ranged from 7 to 15 years. Ten children were female and 8 were male. All but one had generalized, either symmetric or asymmetric chorea. The patients were divided in three equal groups, and were given a standardized dose of each of the drugs built-up over a week. Following therapy, the six children receiving valproic acid showed remarkable improvement, without side effects. Five patients receiving carbamazepine showed improvement without side effects. Only three of the patients that received haloperidol improved. In the 4 cases that did not show clinical improvement after one week of treatment, therapy with valproic acid led to disappearance of the symptoms in a lapse that ranged from 4 to 7 days. Recurrence related to discontinuation of treatment was observed in two patients. In view of the present results we recommend valproic acid as the first choice drug to treat Sydenham chorea.KEY WORDS: Sydenham´s chorea, carbamazepine, haloperidol, valproic acid.Comparación de la eficacia de carbamazepina, haloperidol y acido valproico en el tratamiento de niños Comparación de la eficacia de carbamazepina, haloperidol y acido valproico en el tratamiento de niños Comparación de la eficacia de carbamazepina, haloperidol y acido valproico en el tratamiento de niños Comparación de la eficacia de carbamazepina, haloperidol y acido valproico en el tratamiento de niños Comparación de la eficacia de carbamazepina, haloperidol y acido valproico en el tratamiento de niños con corea de Sydenham: seguimiento clínico de 18 pacientes con corea de Sydenham: seguimiento clínico de 18 pacientes con corea de Sydenham: seguimiento clínico de 18 pacientes con corea de Sydenham: seguimiento clínico de 18 pacientes con corea de Sydenham: seguimiento clínico de 18 pacientes RESUMEN -A fin de comparar y contrastar la eficacia de haloperidol, carbamazepina y ácido valproico en el tratamiento de la corea de Sydenham, se realizó un estudio prospectivo que incluyó 18 casos de esta patología. La edad de los pacientes varió de 7 a 15 años. Diez de los niños eran varones y el resto hembras. A excepción de uno de ellos, todos tenían corea generalizada, simétrica ó asimétrica. Los pacientes fueron divididos en tres grupos iguales, a cada uno de los cuales se le administró una dosis estandarizada de los medicamentos mencionados durante una semana. Luego del tratamiento, los seis pacientes que recibieron ácido valproico mostraron mejoría notable sin efectos colaterales. Cinco de los seis pacientes que recibieron carbamazepina exhibieron mejoría sin efectos colaterales. Solo tres de los pacientes que recibieron haloperidol mejoraron. En los cuatro casos que luego de recibir estas dos últimas drogas sin experimentar mejoría clínica luego de una semana, se instaló terapia con ácido valproico, lo que llevó a desaparición de la sinto...

A total of 1,535 4-12 year-old children were screened with the Conners' rating scales, followed by diagnostic confirmation by the diagnostic interview schedule for children-IV-parent version. The prevalence of ADHD was estimated to be 10.03%, and only 3.9% of children had received medication for the treatment of ADHD symptoms. Prevalence rates and demographic profile of Venezuelan children with ADHD are very similar to those found in samples from other countries. Authorities need to develop public health policies to correctly identify and treat affected subjects. Furthermore, clinicians must actively search for children with ADHD in order to provide the best-available treatment.

BackgroundThere are various language adaptations of the Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia for School Age Children Present and Lifetime Version (K-SADS-PL). In order to comply with the changes in DSM classification, the Spanish edition of the interview was in need of update and evaluation.MethodsK-SADS-PL was adapted to correspond to DSM-5 categories. All clinicians received training, and a 90% agreement was reached. Patients and their parents or guardians were interviewed and videotaped, and the videos were exchanged between raters. Factor analysis was performed and inter-rater reliability was calculated only in the case of diagnoses in which there were more than five patients.ResultsA total of 74 subjects were included. The Factor Analysis yielded six factors (Depressive, Stress Hyperarousal, Disruptive Behavioral, Irritable Explosive, Obsessive Repetitive and Encopresis), representing 72% of the variance. Kappa values for inter-rater agreement were larger than 0.7 for over half of the disorders.ConclusionsThe factor structure of diagnoses, made with the instrument was found to correspond to the DSM-5 disorder organization. The instrument showed good construct validity and inter-rater reliability, which makes it a useful tool for clinical research studies in children and adolescents.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (10.1186/s12888-018-1773-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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