Children born in December are almost twice as likely to be diagnosed with a learning disorder as those born in January. ADHD was found not to affect the association between month of birth and the likelihood of a learning disability diagnosis.
Professor André Sourander has received substantial research funding from the European Research Council (ERC). Sourander received ERC Advanced Grant funding for a project “DIGIPARENT - Implementation, personalization and genetics of digitally assisted parent training intervention to improve child mental health services.
Finnish parents felt that the Let’s Cope Together website, which is based on behavioural therapy methods, helped them and their child to manage worries related to the coronavirus during the first spring of the pandemic. The website, which has been created by the Research Centre for Child Psychiatry at the University of Turku, is opened today for anonymous use. As well as the English, Finnish and Swedish versions, the content will also soon be offered in Russian and Japanese.
A population-based study revealed reasons behind elevated suicide risk, attempted suicides, and other selfharm, which require special health care, among adolescents and young adults with autism spectrum disorders. Comorbid disorders, especially non-affective psychoses and the affective and anxiety disorders, explained the risk.
A study using extensive nationwide registry data showed that girls born extremely preterm, earlier than 28 weeks gestational age, were three times more likely to be diagnosed with depression than peers born close to the expected date of delivery. Increased risk of depression also applied to girls and boys with poor fetal growth born full-term and post-term. The effects of poor fetal growth were more evident with increasing gestational age.
The Department of Child Psychiatry has opened a website for parents whose children develop symptoms of anxiety or fear during the current corona epidemic. The website provides information on anxiety, advice on how to handle difficult feelings and simple exercises to ease the anxiety of a parent and their child. The site has been implemented by experienced digital care researchers.
Premature birth, low birth weight, and neonatal intensive care are associated with the risk of being diagnosed with reactive attachment disorder (RAD) showed a study by the Research Centre for Child Psychiatry of the University of Turku, Finland. Reactive attachment disorder causes problems in emotional bonding, social interaction, and expression of emotions, and it can lead to severe and expensive consequences later in life.
The Itla Children’s Foundation donates two professorships, one to the University of Turku and the other to the University of Oulu. The research field of the donated professorships is intervention and implementation research. The professorships are unique in the research of children’s well-being in Finland and are also globally significant.
According to a study conducted in Finland, the risk of ADHD was 34 percent higher in children whose mother had a vitamin D deficiency during pregnancy than in those children whose mother’s vitamin D level was sufficient during the first and second trimesters. The result was adjusted for maternal age, socioeconomic status and psychiatric history. The study was done in collaboration between researchers from the University of Turku, Finland, and Columbia University, New York.