Giggle incontinence and facial emotion recognition deficits: a rare condition with a new insight into management

Giggling incontinence(GI), although uncommon, can have a profound effect on a patient's quality of life, especially in adolescent females. A case study involving a 4-year-old girl who developed urinary incontinence symptoms following a traumatic brain injury from a motor vehicle accident and subsequent loss of her parents highlights the challenges in managing this condition after 4 months. Despite conventional treatments such as pelvic floor exercises and cognitive therapy, the patient's symptoms persisted. Unexpectedly, during facial expression recognition training, the guardian reported a notable improvement in the patient's symptoms. Following 45 days of specialized training in facial expression recognition, the patient experienced a complete resolution of GI symptoms. The initial objective of the intervention was to mitigate impairments in facial expression recognition, a social deficit that can have deleterious effects on development. However, the observed correlation between GI symptoms and regulation of brain areas was evident, compounded by the patient's concomitant frontoparietal brain injury and parental loss, which may have contributed to both GI symptoms and facial expression recognition impairments. This case report provides new insights into the intervention of GI symptoms and common emotional expression recognition disorders in the mental health field.