Talk:Pervasive refusal syndrome

Week 6 Assignment from Nwitzofsky

Hello Beebee's wingman, I saw that you added the following sentences to the Pervasive refusal syndrome article:

"During the recovery period symptoms disappear in the opposite order they appear. That is to say that if food refusal was the first symptom to appear then it would be the last to disappear and if another symptom appears later on, it will disappear relatively early in the recovery process."

I read the article where you found the information on pervasive refusal syndrome and your sentences seem to be plagiarized. The article where you found this information states: "Generally, the symptoms that appear first are the last to disappear, so if food refusal was the first symptom, normal eating will not occur until all the other features have resolved. Similarly, the symptoms that are last to appear are usually the first to resolve." Although you changed a few words here and there, your sentences do not appear to be in your own words. Try rewriting the sentences in your own words. I also noticed that there is an error with your citation because I see "(NaN undefined NaN)" following the author's name in your citation.

--Nwitzofsky (talk) 03:53, 10 October 2011 (UTC)

This seems to have a reference source primarily of one case history

How reliable is that? Star767 02:21, 5 April 2013 (UTC)

There are things about this article which seem worrying to me. There is no section of criticism, and much of the article is written as if PRS is a reliable and meaningful diagnosis, but then there are parts like this:

"As of 2011, it is not included in the standard psychiatric classification systems."

"Unfortunately, no evidence-based treatment is known for PRS. However it is widely accepted that..."

How close to quackery are we with this diagnosis? 87.115.27.129 (talk) —Preceding undated comment added 03:14, 7 April 2013 (UTC)

Also, the first photo is, apparently, just nap time at a nursery. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 87.115.27.129 (talk) 20:04, 7 April 2013 (UTC)

Controversial topic

Just flagging up that this has been extremely controversial with a lot of heated debate in the media because of child asylum seekers in refugees, and the link between the need for healthcare and the legal rights that is supposedly linked to. I think any article that states that most children - especially pre-teens - that need long term in-patient psychiatric care needs good evidence in support of this. Amousey (talk) 18:06, 29 May 2020 (UTC)

No original research & potential bias

1.The lead for a syndrome is written as if it is a accepted, it is not, nor is it classified in the DSM or ICD which have various workgroups to consider what to add or alter. The wording accepts the validity of a syndrome without any consideration about why it isn't a diagnosis, and why it isn't get added to the DSM-5 or ICD-11. The sources are mostly primary sources. I am not used to feeding back so apologies if I messed up doing so.
2. WP:NOR I put because the sources used to link Autism and Asperger's didn't mention the syndrome. The top of the article lists general symptoms of a (life-threatening?) somatoform disorder, the lower part then talks about neurodevelopmental conditions. I also didn't know if it was trying to present an alternative diagnosis that was similar, or saying it's a comorbidity. I can see the overlap in certain behaviors, but unfortunately just wasn't in the sources and it read as if pervasive refusal might have been something that occurred in people on the autism or Asperger's spectrum.
3. Not a neutral point of view in my opinion. Almost the whole article is what Lask thinks and what his opinions are, which means his views are over represented - I can't tell the facts from Lask's personal experiences or opinions. Where there are secondary sources they are just repeating Lask's opinion (most children need to go in-patient - but he doesn't present data). With things like who is affected (Epidemiology) you would normally expect some underlying large scale research, with statistics. Often it would mention how rare it is in difficult countries, or facts like the must greater numbers occurring in certain countries/ethnic groups /races /classes etc. I think it would improve things to clarify how limited the data is and what can / can't be confirmed. It may be worth checking how other rare or proposed conditions are presented on WP and following a similar approach. I appreciate that that are very few sources about this. I am surprised it's been considered notable enough to be here.
4. Controversy is notable but not covered. I have definitely seen some in the media but I'm not sure what's there in terms of scientific opinions. Amousey (talk) 18:33, 29 May 2020 (UTC)

Pinging Doc James to make sure he sees this and the above. Will also alert WP:Med. Flyer22 Frozen (talk) 00:43, 31 May 2020 (UTC)

Good call Amousey and thank you for alerting WP:MED Flyer22 Frozen. I massively edited the article, thinking that a "clean start" is needed. IMHO it's a notable topic given that it has appeared in the medical literature for ~25 years with "pervasive refusal syndrome" occurring in 414 sources (Google Scholar search, exact match), and occuring in the title of 40 sources (Google search, exact match, in title only). (Those numbers are rough estimates since Google Scholar lists a fair amount of gray literature.)   - Mark D Worthen PsyD (talk) (I'm a man—traditional male pronouns are fine.) 05:38, 31 May 2020 (UTC)

I did a PubMed search for "pervasive refusal syndrome"[Title/Abstract] with the filters "Humans" and "MEDLINE" applied, which yielded 24 references.   - Mark D Worthen PsyD (talk) (I'm a man—traditional male pronouns are fine.) 05:44, 31 May 2020 (UTC)

FYI: The journal European child & adolescent psychiatry (Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry) is indexed by MEDLINE and included in Index Medicus.   - Mark D Worthen PsyD (talk) (I'm a man—traditional male pronouns are fine.) 05:51, 31 May 2020 (UTC)

I think that this article needs to be expanded (compared to its current form) to include the controversy over whether some of these alleged "pervasive refusal" children may be girls being sedated and starved by their parents in a very desperate attempt to win asylum on medical grounds.[1][2] I suspect that the vast majority of people looking at this article are doing so to understand more about what they've read in the news, and mentioning it will help people know that they're in the right place. The article also needs to explain note that almost every single reported case has appeared in the same small country.

We should also consider a merge with Resignation syndrome. WhatamIdoing (talk) 16:14, 31 May 2020 (UTC)

A merge might be a good idea. Given the responses above, I'm categorizing as alternative views. I don't see much (if any) difference from eating disorders - anorexia particularly is known for refusal / withdrawal behaviors. Amousey (talk) 16:25, 31 May 2020 (UTC)

would generally agree w/ Amousey(merge might be good idea)--Ozzie10aaaa (talk) 13:54, 2 June 2020 (UTC)

I support a merge too.   - Mark D Worthen PsyD (talk) (I'm a man—traditional male pronouns are fine.) 05:43, 4 June 2020 (UTC)

Different view point

Refugees in Sweden controvery is covered in Asylum seekers with apathetic refugee children, which I've linked the page too. Amousey (talk) 15:05, 2 June 2020 (UTC)