Coordinated Psychotherapeutic Approaches to a Familial Dysautonomy Preschool Boy and his Parents

Familial dysautonomia† is a rare but dangerous disease (22 per cent mortality in reported cases), resulting in a disability of a wide range of nervous system functions. Certain psychological disturbances occur so regularly in children suffering from familial dysautonomia as to be virtually required for diagnosis.14 No effective means of treatment have been found for either the somatic or the psychological symptoms of the dysautonomic infant. While these problems may decrease with age, in most cases they remain handicaps, often severe ones. However, the few published reports of psychotherapeutic treatment of school-age dysautonomic children describe favorable results.9,14 Similarly, our psychotherapeutic efforts appear to have been significantly instrumental in the reduction of developmental fixations and the reversal of detrimental psychological patterns in a dysautonomic preschool boy (Erik).

Our purpose is to elucidate the pathological aspects of the emotional interaction between Erik and his parents14 and also the interrelationships of the somatic and emotional symptoms within Erik and, finally, to describe the effects of our psychotherapeutic interventions