Selective Mutism
Selective Mutism is a complex childhood anxiety disorder characterized by a child’s inability to speak and communicate effectively in select social settings, such as school. These children are able to speak and communicate in settings where they are comfortable, secure, and relaxed.
Cluster Number:
Wiki Number: PW200
Diagnosis: Selective Mutism
US Patients:
World Patients: .71 of 1% in 2002
Sex Ratio:
Age Onset: early childhood
Brain Area: amygdalas may become over-excited and this is a fight-flight response;
Symptoms: anxiety where people cannot speak in specific situations or places or to specific persons along with a social anxiety disorder.
Progression: Gets worse with age, contributing to depression, further anxiety and other social and emotional problems
Causes: some have experienced trauma; others, not
Medications: An SSRI, fluoxetine, has helped some children.
Therapies: Only change schools if the new one will be more supportive. Different techniques are described in the Wikipedia article.
Youtube Video: Evidence-Based Treatment for Selective Mutism
Amazon or Library Book:
The Selective Mutism Treatment Guide
Amazon or Library Book:
Raising Voices
Click the book to link or order from Amazon.
Click the book to link or order from Amazon.
4 CURRENT ARTICLES
FROM PUBMED
The world-wide medical research
reports chosen for each diagnosis
Clicking each title opens the
PubMed article’s summary-abstract.
- The Entity of Cerebellar Mutism Syndrome: A Narrative Review Centered on the Etiology, Diagnostics, Prevention, and Therapeutic Optionsby Dimitrios Panagopoulos on January 21, 2023
Cerebellar mutism syndrome (CMS), also known as posterior fossa syndrome, is an entity that entails a constellation of signs and symptoms which are recorded in a limited number of pediatric patients who have been operated on mainly for tumors involving the posterior cranial fossa, and more precisely, the region of the vermis. Medulloblastoma seems to constitute the most commonly recognized pathological substrate, associated with this entity. The most prevalent constituents of this syndrome are...
- Case series of sporadic Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease in Northern Tasmaniaby Priyanka Rajalingam on January 21, 2023
Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease is a rare and incurable form of rapidly progressive neurodegenerative disease. The disease is fatal, and most patients die within 1 year of diagnosis. Clinical features include progressive cognitive dysfunction, delusions or hallucinations, cerebellar ataxia, myoclonus, visual disturbances, extrapyramidal signs and eventually akinetic mutism. Most patients present with varied clinical presentation, hence making it difficult to diagnose at an early stage. We report five...
- Beyond the language barrier: A systematic review of selective mutism in culturally and linguistically diverse childrenby Ortal Slobodin on January 11, 2023
Selective mutism is a childhood psychiatric disorder that has been associated with adverse psychological, social and educational outcomes. Although evidence suggests that culturally and linguistically diverse children might be overrepresented among children with selective mutism, a direct examination of how migration or minority status are associated with the development and persistence of the disorder is still scarce. Guided by eco-cultural perspectives of development, the current review aims...
- Clinical characteristics and prognosis of Glioblastoma patients with infratentorial recurrenceby Daisuke Kawauchi on January 7, 2023
CONCLUSIONS: ITR is a severe recurrence type in GBM patients. Its symptoms are neurologically unspecific and can be overlooked or misdiagnosed as side effects of treatments. Carefully checking the infratentorial region, especially around the fourth ventricle, is essential during the GBM patient follow-up.