The role of emotional distress in the development of psychomotor deviations and infectious morbidity in infants of the first year of life
The objective. To determine the dependence between the emotional state of infants of the first year of life, their psychomotor development, on the one hand, and autonomic-somatic manifestations and the incidence of infectious diseases, on the other hand. Patients and methods. The examination included 348 at the age 2-12 months, who were divided into two groups: with active parental care (group 1, n = 172) and with limiter satisfaction of their needs in contacts with parents (group 2, n = 176). All infants underwent assessment of psychomotor development according to the Denver scale-2 (DDST), emotional expression (by the FAST method), determination of the balance of the autonomic nervous system (measurement of electrical conductivity of the skin and heart rate, capillaroscopy), the incidence and spectrum of disorders, their duration and frequency of complications were recorded. Results. In infants of group 2 negative emotions were noted 4 times more frequently. As was found, the number of negative emotional episodes in infants of group 2 (mainly indifference and fear during contacts with strangers) has a strong correlation (r = 0.893-0.901) with deviations of psychomotor development (mainly in formation of speech and subtle motions) and with infectious disease incidence rates (r = 0.885-0.905), a moderate correlation with deviations of the balance of the autonomic nervous system was noted. Conclusion. Limited satisfaction of an infant's needs results in delayed psychomotor development and deviations of the autonomic balance, which might be a factor of forming frequent incidence of infectious diseases.