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Follow-up study of four cases of pervasive refusal syndrome

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Abstract

The term pervasive refusal syndrome was first mentioned in a paper detailing a sample study of four children by Bryan Lask and colleagues in 1991. This article presents a sample of four children diagnosed with Pervasive Refusal Syndrome, three girls and a boy, seen within a specialist NHS inpatient unit in the North East of England, and describes the main features presented. The main focus of the article will be on long-term prognosis and outcome in relation to day to day functioning and activities. Each of the cases has been followed up once at an interval of between 3 and 16 years after discharge, and the outcomes are presented here. Results suggest that two of the young people with PRS made a complete recovery in the long term, that one was impaired by anorexia nervosa at follow-up, and the remaining young person was reluctant to be interviewed, so it is unclear how well she has maintained her initial discharge recovery.

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References

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Acknowledgments

We wish to thank the multidisciplinary in-patient team for their invaluable assistance, and all the families involved for giving their consent to be included in this case series. Research time as contracted by NTW NHS trust was used in order to complete this project.

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Correspondence to Victoria Grahame.

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Guirguis, S., Reid, C., Rao, S. et al. Follow-up study of four cases of pervasive refusal syndrome. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry 20, 271–274 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-011-0169-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-011-0169-1

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