Study of Quality of Life in Freeman-Sheldon Syndrome and Related Conditions

This study is a research project initiated by the graduate research student (Mikaela I. Poling) and assisted by the clinical genetics fellow and graduate student (Andrés Morales) in partial fulfilment the requirements for their Masters degrees in Clinical and Applied Physiology, under approval, direction, and supervision of the study PI (Rodger J. McCormick). Mental Health and Congenital Deformities: Apajasalo et al. (1998) found significantly decreased health-related quality of life versus controls among adults and youth ages with chondrodysplasias. Differences in adult scores were in the areas of mobility, usual activities, and sexual activity and discomfort. Youth scores differed more in school and hobbies and friends and physical appearance. Didierjean-Pillet (2002) stressed concern for aesthetics of reconstruction in consideration of psychiatric impacts of congenital deformities in psychosocial functioning. Nagata et al. (2008) found that 20% of mothers with children operated on for congenital disease were likely to have post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). They found that pro-active, effective participation in the child's care may alleviate PTSS. Vitale et al. (2005) found quality of life survey scores among clubfoot patients compatible with age-matched controls, in agreement with Roye (2001), and not correlated to radiograph appearance. They advised quality of life survey scores be primary endpoint in determining therapeutic outcome. Engell et al. (2007) found significant post-operative improvement in the Short Form-12 Health Survey physical component scale in congenital clubbed-foot patients in the Danish Twin Registry. Vitale et al. (2001) observed that tailored quality of life scales were required for paediatric orthopaedic populations. Hawkins and Radcliffe (2006) concluded there was a lack of appropriate and validated PTSD measures for paediatric patients. Part of this problem of lacking validated paediatric PTSD measures was likely do to non-comprehensive Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders IV Text-Revision criteria. Relevance to Current Study: Because FSS-related deformities were more comprehensive, treatment-resistant, and associated with poorer clinical outcome, quality of life studies not including a subset of FSS patients may not be appropriate in the more challenging clinical picture of FSS-related deformities. In many conditions, disorder-specific quality of life measures (QLM) showed increased sensitivity and specificity over general QLMs and were important therapeutic tools to assess efficacy of and prioritise interventions. Results of disorder-specific QLMs were important predictors of clinical outcome.