On October 11th, the XVII Scientific Symposia was held in Madrid at the Auditorium of the Mutua Madrileña Foundation. The format was mixed, face-to-face and online, with an overall attendance of 600 people.
They were inaugurated by the Chairwoman of the Alicia Koplowitz Foundation, who explained that the central theme of the symposia was ‘those illnesses of the soul, which are mental illnesses and which sometimes manifest themselves as somatisation in human beings, and are sometimes difficult to diagnose, especially during childhood and adolescence. Children are often unable to transmit their fears, sadness and anxieties, which is why we have dedicated this symposia to these problems and I hope and wish that our speakers today will clarify, teach and guide us to understand them better’.
Dr. Guisasola, Scientific Coordinator of the Foundation, went on to say that they were ‘those clinical symptoms, which children and adolescents sometimes refer to repeatedly and periodically, and which cause them great discomfort and unease. They complain of headaches, or tummy aches, or persistent diarrhoea, or skin lesions, or even convulsions. We go on a pilgrimage with them to different medical specialists, looking for the cause of these symptoms and signs, in order to find an effective treatment to put an end to their discomfort. Often, after multiple analyses and tests, some of them even invasive, such as lumbar puncture, the result is always the same. All the tests are normal and there is no reason that can explain these somatic, physical symptoms in our children and adolescents. Because the cause of the discomfort of these children and adolescents is not organic, it is not physical. It is psychic, mental, and that is the reason for their suffering. We are going to go into all of this in depth at this Scientific Symposia, so that we can all think about possible psychogenic causes in the differential diagnosis of our children’s discomfort’.
During the Scientific Symposia, different internalising and conversive disorders in children and adolescents were presented, such as functional neurological disorders, pain in different locations, convulsions, psychotic symptoms, sleep disorders and even dermatological conditions. Different types of therapeutic approaches were also discussed, some of which were accompanied by illustrative videos.