Parents' attitudes and psychological adjustment during their child's hospitalization in a pediatric neurorehabilitation care unit are key aspects for the child's adherence to care and the impact of the disease. The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between parenting stress, coping style, and negative psychological outcomes in families of children admitted for the first time to a pediatric neurorehabilitation care unit. This is an observational study. Pediatric neurorehabilitation care unit. One hundred twenty-four parents of children diagnosed with neurodevelopmental or neurological conditions. Parents completed standardized questionnaires assessing parenting stress, coping style, anxiety and depressive symptoms. We found that parents of children with neurodevelopmental conditions showed more emotion-focused coping strategies (P=0.016) and depressive symptoms (P=0.01) compared with parents of children with neurological conditions. Hierarchical regression analyses showed that emotion- and avoidance-oriented coping style and socioeconomic status are crucial factors in the adjustment process of parents of children with neurodevelopmental conditions. By contrast, parenting stress and child difficulties were the most significant predictors of negative psychological outcomes in parents with neurological conditions. This study sought to develop more understanding of the relationship among parenting stress, coping, and anxiety or depressive symptoms in parent of children hospitalized in a pediatric neurorehabilitation care unit. We suggest that examining parents may increase our understanding of the interplay between child and parent functioning in families with children admitted for the first time to a pediatric neurorehabilitation care unit. Identify these predictors might help professionals to develop screening procedures to identify parent at high risk for anxiety or depression, and to conduct early interventions to reduce uncertainty and maladaptive coping strategies that may influences rehabilitation process.

Baclofen is widely used to control spasticity in children with cerebral palsy. Several publications described clinical adverse effects of baclofen oral treatment, but the effect of baclofen on seizure potentiation is still controversial. We describe a 10-year-old female patient with cerebral palsy, epilepsy, and mental retardation who developed clinical adverse effects (confusion, agitated state, insomnia, diffuse hypotonia, and hyporeflexia) and electroencephalographic (EEG) changes (quasiperiodic, generalized burst of sharp waves that take up >50% of standard EEG) during long-term oral baclofen treatment, after gradually increasing the dosage but still within the therapeutic dose. Our case showed clearly that the EEG changes in our patient, with a history of epilepsy in good control, have been induced by the baclofen increase, and we describe the possible mechanisms that could explain proconvulsive effect of baclofen.