Does the use of Health Care and Special School Services, Prior to Admission for Psychiatric Inpatient Treatment, Differ Between Adolescents Housed by Child Welfare Services and Those Living with Their Biological Parent(s)?

We examined whether the use of health care and special school services, prior to admission for psychiatric inpatient treatment, differed between adolescents from child welfare units and those living at their parental home. 208 boys and 300 girls aged 12–17 years were admitted for psychiatric hospital between 2001 and 2006. Child welfare adolescents had used more health services/treatments prior to psychiatric hospital admission than adolescents living with their biological family. The best discriminating factors between study groups for both genders, were previous psychiatric hospitalizations, unemployed parents, use of special school services and self-perceived serious anxiety/tension or trouble controlling violent behavior. Repeated school grades and previous use of psychotropic medications were discriminating factors only in girls. Adolescents in child welfare deserve adequate mental health evaluations at an early stage, with referral to appropriate adolescent psychiatric services if required. Appropriate service provision and properly planned treatments may reduce the amount of intensive and sometimes unnecessary psychiatric inpatient treatments.     

The association of preceding traumatic brain injury with mental disorders,alcoholism and criminality: the Northern Finland 1966 Birth Cohort Study

The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that traumatic brain injury (TBI) during childhood and adolescence is associated with psychiatric disorders, heavy alcohol use and criminal offenses in adulthood. We made use of an unselected, general population birth cohort (n=12058) in Northern Finland, which was followed up prospectively up to the age of 31. The data on TBIs of the cohort members were collected from the hospital case notes of the outpatient clinics of the hospitals in the region and from the Finnish Hospital Discharge Registers (FHDR). The data on mental disorders including alcohol diagnoses were also collected from the FHDR after a careful validation process. The Ministry of Justice provided information on criminal offenses for all subjects. The final number of subjects in our study was 5589 males and 5345 females. We found that after controlling for confounders, TBI during childhood or adolescence increased the risk of developing mental disorders two-fold (OR 2.1, 95% CI 1.1-3.6) and TBI was significantly related to later mental disorder with coexisting criminality in male cohort members (OR 4.1, 95% CI 1.2-13.6). The results support the TBI's association with psychiatric morbidity, which should not be overlooked when treating psychiatric patients, especially those with comorbid criminality.     

Increased level of polymerase Ⅲ transcribed Alu RNA in hepatocellular carcinoma tissue

There have been extensive observations that RNA containing repetitive elements accumulates in transformed cells and tumor tissues. In the present study, we first obtained result consistent with previous observations by in situ hybridization.     

Motor performance and functional ability in preschool- and early school-aged children with Juvenile Idiopathic Arthritis: a cross-sectional study

Objective  

To describe the level of motor performance and functional skills in young children with JIA.     

Repeated use of psychiatric emergency out-patient services among new patients: a 3-year follow-up study

The aim of this study was to examine repeated use of psychiatric emergency out-patient services during the second and third years after the first contact. A 1-year treated incidence cohort of 537 new patients was studied in the Department of Psychiatry in Oulu, Finland. Repeat users were defined as patients belonging to the upper 10th percentile of the emergency out-patient contacts. The median of emergency out-patient contacts among repeaters was 4. The repeaters constituted 8% of the cohort and they used 65% of the cohort's emergency contacts. They were more likely to be male and living alone, and they tended to have more serious diagnoses than non-repeaters. Having hospital admissions, planned out-patient contacts and repeated emergency out-patient contacts also during the first year of follow-up was associated with an increased probability of repeatedly using emergency services during the second and third years. Living alone and having hospital admissions during the follow-up period were associated with being a continuous repeat visitor during the whole follow-up period. It is concluded that the extended repeated use of emergency services is associated with inadequate social support and serious psychiatric problems.