Valsamma Eapen

Last updated
Valsamma Eapen
Born
Alma materT.D Medical College Alleppey
University of London
OccupationPsychiatrist
Known forDeveloping the Quality of Life in Autism (QoLA) scale

Valsamma Eapen is a chair of infant, child and adolescent psychiatry at UNSW Sydney. She is a fellow of the Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists, and the Royal College of Psychiatrists, UK. [1]

Contents

Education

Eapen was born in Kerala, India and completed her secondary education in Trivandrum. After graduating in medicine from T.D Medical College Alleppey, she trained at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences in Bangalore, India, and in the UK, through the University College Hospital and North London Teaching Hospitals rotational training scheme and advanced training through the Great Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children and Institute Of Child Health. She undertook her PhD at the University of London, with research carried out at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, Queen Square, London on the genetics of Tourette syndrome. [2] [3] [4]

Research and career

Her academic career began at the University College London and she then moved to United Arab Emirates University before taking up her current appointment as professor and chair of infant, child and adolescent psychiatry at UNSW Sydney and as clinical academic and head of the academic unit of child psychiatry at South West Sydney Local Health District. [5] [6]

As a clinician researcher, she has translated research findings into practice and policy applications such as developing service delivery frameworks for early identification of developmental problems in preschool children including the Watch Me Grow webapp. [7] [8] [9] [10] Further, her team examined the pivotal role of oxytocin in attachment, separation anxiety and child development, offering translational opportunities for identifying women at risk in the antenatal period to improve intergenerational outcomes. [11]

Her research has included genetic, epidemiological, and phenomenological studies as well as clinical interventions in Tourette syndrome. Further, she has contributed significantly to research in autism spectrum disorders, building evidence base on early intervention and leading the autism subtyping program in collaboration with the Autism Co-operative Research Centre (Autism CRC). A world first research through the NSW ASELCC in Liverpool – where Eapen is the research lead – showed the benefits of the Early Start Denver Model in reducing maladaptive behaviours in preschool children with autism spectrum disorder. [12] [13] [14]

Eapen was part of a four-member executive team that developed the National Guideline for the Assessment and Diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorders through the Autism CRC in collaboration with the National Disability Insurance Agency and endorsed by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC). [15] Launched November 2017, this is being utilised across Australia and adopted by the NDIS.

Eapen has developed the Quality of Life in Autism (QoLA) scale, which has been adopted for use by more than 73 teams across 25 countries and translated into several different languages. [16]

The Watch Me Grow study, funded through an NHMRC Partnership grant with NSW Health, involved a 2000-strong birth cohort study that examined the modifiable risk factors for developmental disability. [17] [18] This study found evidence of an ‘inverse care law’, whereby those children at highest risk (e.g. mothers born overseas and of lower educational/income levels) were the least likely to access the surveillance program. [19]

In an effort to address the current inequity in access to developmental services in low resourced environments, Eapen developed the Watch Me Grow Electronic Platform (WMG-E), a webapp for engaging parents in developmental monitoring during opportunistic contacts such as immunisation visits. [20] [21] This webapp was developed in collaboration with the Random Hacks of Kindness community of technologists – a joint initiative between Microsoft, Google, Yahoo!, NASA, and the World Bank. This is currently being disseminated in Australia and overseas to establish a Universal Developmental Surveillance program with equitable access to all pre-school children. It was featured at the American Psychiatric Association 2019 conference as ‘one of three exemplars of innovative global mental health programs’. [22] [23]

Her book Where There is No Child Psychiatrist is being used to improve skills for professionals on mental health problems, particularly in developing countries.

Awards and honors

Personal life

Eapen is a board director (voluntary) for Karitane Parenting Services. As the medical publicity liaison officer for the Tourette Syndrome Association Australia, she leads the annual Tourette Awareness Week activities. [27] [28]

Selected publications

Eapen has written six books and more than 300 journal publications. [1]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Asperger syndrome</span> Neurodevelopmental diagnosis now categorized under ASD

Asperger syndrome (AS), also known as Asperger's syndrome, formerly described a neurodevelopmental condition characterized by significant difficulties in social interaction and nonverbal communication combined with restricted and repetitive patterns of behavior and interests. The syndrome has been merged with other conditions into autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and is no longer considered a stand-alone diagnosis. It was considered to differ from other diagnoses that were merged into ASD by relatively unimpaired spoken language and intelligence.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tourette syndrome</span> Neurodevelopmental disorder involving motor and vocal tics

Tourette syndrome or Tourette's syndrome is a common neurodevelopmental disorder that begins in childhood or adolescence. It is characterized by multiple movement (motor) tics and at least one vocal (phonic) tic. Common tics are blinking, coughing, throat clearing, sniffing, and facial movements. These are typically preceded by an unwanted urge or sensation in the affected muscles known as a premonitory urge, can sometimes be suppressed temporarily, and characteristically change in location, strength, and frequency. Tourette's is at the more severe end of a spectrum of tic disorders. The tics often go unnoticed by casual observers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Megalencephaly</span> Medical condition

Megalencephaly is a growth development disorder in which the brain is abnormally large. It is characterized by a brain with an average weight that is 2.5 standard deviations above the mean of the general population. Approximately 1 out of 50 children (2%) are said to have the characteristics of megalencephaly in the general population.

Developmental disorders comprise a group of psychiatric conditions originating in childhood that involve serious impairment in different areas. There are several ways of using this term. The most narrow concept is used in the category "Specific Disorders of Psychological Development" in the ICD-10. These disorders comprise developmental language disorder, learning disorders, motor disorders, and autism spectrum disorders. In broader definitions ADHD is included, and the term used is neurodevelopmental disorders. Yet others include antisocial behavior and schizophrenia that begins in childhood and continues through life. However, these two latter conditions are not as stable as the other developmental disorders, and there is not the same evidence of a shared genetic liability.

Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are neurodevelopmental disorders that begin in early childhood, persist throughout adulthood, and affect three crucial areas of development: communication, social interaction and restricted patterns of behavior. There are many conditions comorbid to autism spectrum disorders such as attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and epilepsy.

A language delay is a language disorder in which a child fails to develop language abilities at the usual age-appropriate period in their developmental timetable. It is most commonly seen in children ages two to seven years-old and can continue into adulthood. The reported prevalence of language delay ranges from 2.3 to 19 percent.

High-functioning autism (HFA) was historically an autism classification where a person exhibits no intellectual disability, but may experience difficulty in communication, emotion recognition, expression, and social interaction.

A delayed milestone, which is also known as a developmental delay, refers to a situation where a child does not reach a particular developmental milestone at the expected age. Developmental milestones refer to a collection of indicators that a child is anticipated to reach as they grow older.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Autism therapies</span> Therapy aimed at improving quality of life and adaptive skills in autistic people

Autism therapies include a wide variety of therapies that help people with autism, or their families. Such methods of therapy seek to aid autistic people in dealing with difficulties and increase their functional independence.

The epidemiology of autism is the study of the incidence and distribution of autism spectrum disorders (ASD). A 2022 systematic review of global prevalence of autism spectrum disorders found a median prevalence of 1% in children in studies published from 2012 to 2021, with a trend of increasing prevalence over time. However, the study's 1% figure may reflect an underestimate of prevalence in low- and middle-income countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Classic autism</span> Neurodevelopmental condition

Classic autism, also known as childhood autism, autistic disorder, (early) infantile autism, infantile psychosis, Kanner's autism,Kanner's syndrome, or (formerly) just autism, is a neurodevelopmental condition first described by Leo Kanner in 1943. It is characterized by atypical and impaired development in social interaction and communication as well as restricted, repetitive behaviors, activities, and interests. These symptoms first appear in early childhood and persist throughout life.

Susan Swedo is a researcher in the field of pediatrics and neuropsychiatry. Beginning in 1998, she was Chief of the Pediatrics & Developmental Neuroscience Branch at the US National Institute of Mental Health. In 1994, Swedo was lead author on a paper describing pediatric autoimmune neuropsychiatric disorders associated with streptococcal infections (PANDAS), a controversial hypothesis proposing a link between Group A streptococcal infection in children and some rapid-onset cases of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) or tic disorders such as Tourette syndrome. Swedo retired from the NIH in 2019, and serves on the PANDAS Physician Network.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Autism spectrum</span> Neurodevelopmental disorder

Autism, formally called autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or autism spectrum condition (ASC), is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by deficits in social communication and social interaction, and repetitive or restricted patterns of behaviors, interests, or activities, which can include hyper- and hyporeactivity to sensory input. Autism is a spectrum disorder, meaning that it can manifest very differently in each person. For example, some are nonspeaking, while others have proficient spoken language. Because of this, there is wide variation in the support needs of people across the autism spectrum.

Michele Zappella is an Italian psychiatrist and scholar of Child Neuropsychiatry. He is a native of Viareggio, Italy.

Clinical neuroscience is a branch of neuroscience that focuses on the scientific study of fundamental mechanisms that underlie diseases and disorders of the brain and central nervous system. It seeks to develop new ways of conceptualizing and diagnosing such disorders and ultimately of developing novel treatments.

James Frederick Leckman is an American child psychiatrist and psychoanalyst and the Neison Harris Professor of Child Psychiatry, Psychiatry, Psychology and Pediatrics at the Yale School of Medicine, recognized for his research in Tourette syndrome (TS) and obsessive–compulsive disorder (OCD).

Daniel A. Rossignol, MD, FAAFP, is a family medicine doctor. Rossignol runs the Rossignol Medical Center, with offices in Melbourne, Florida and in Aliso Viejo, California. He also works at the Wisconsin Integrative Hyperbaric Center in Fitchburg, Wisconsin, and is a member of the physician advisory board for The Autism Community in Action. Rossignol is known for his advocacy of certain autism therapies.

John N. Constantino is a child psychiatrist and expert on neurodevelopmental disorders, especially autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Constantino is the Blanche F. Ittleson Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics at Washington University School of Medicine.

Marian Diamond Sigman (1941–2012) was a developmental and child clinical psychologist known for her research on autism spectrum disorder (ASD). At the time of her death, she was Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences and Psychology at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

The Autism – Tics, AD/HD, and other Comorbidities (A–TAC) is a psychological measure used to screen for other conditions occurring with tics. Along with tic disorders, it screens for autism spectrum disorders, attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and other conditions with onset in childhood. The A-TAC has been reported as valid and reliable for detecting most disorders in children. One telephone survey found it was not validated for eating disorders.

References

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