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Objective: Chronic disease is defined as" a condition caused by irreversible pathological changes that may lead to permanent disability and may require special education, long-term care, supervision and control for the rehabilitation of the patient". If the patient is the child who is the most valuable asset of the family, this situation is a source of real trauma for the entire family. Hence; this study aimed to demonstrate that parents of children with chronic neurological disease have higher depression and anxiety levels depending on the circumstances they are involved and draw attention to the necessity of psychological support for these families. Method: This study was conducted with the parents and relatives of the sick children who applied to the Department of Pediatric Neurology of Istanbul Medical Faculty and the parents and relatives of healthy children who applied to the family health center Şişli in Istanbul. Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Beck Anxiety Inventory (BAI) and family interview form prepared by the researcher were used in this study. Informed consent was obtained from the participants and face to face interview technique was applied. The responses of the participants; were written down by the participant or researcher on the form and they were asked to mark the options of the questions within the scope of BDI and BAI. Results: In this survey any significant difference was not observed between the group of parents of children with (patient group: n=60) and without chronic neurological disease (control group: n=60) (t =p 1.273 p>0.05). Conclusion: Lack of any significant difference between anxiety and depression levels of the case and control groups, but still higher anxety and depression levels in both groups demonstrate that further and more sophisticated studşes should be performed on this issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To define clinical features of patients with alternating hemiplegia of childhood. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the clinical presentation and course of the disease in patients diagnosed between January 2003 and December 2008 at the Pediatric Neurology Department of the Istanbul Medical Faculty. Results: The nine patients had a mean age of 6.6 months (2-15 months) at the onset of symptoms. Paroxysmal eye movements were the early symptom of five patients. All patients had recurrent alternating hemiplegic episodes and relief of symptoms while sleeping. Duration of events varied widely from few minutes to several days and was associated with slowly progressive neurological deterioration. Flunarizine might decrease frequency of events but is not effective to neurological deterioration. Amantadine as an alternative agent is used in add-on therapy, but epileptogenic side effect prevented the evaluation of long-term efficacy. Conclusion: Trials on new agents like amantadine are necessary for more effective control of the disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]