Pregnancy-Related Maternal Risk Factors of Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder: A Case-Control Study

Background. The etiology of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is complex.This study was conducted to evaluate the pregnancy-related maternal risk factors of ADHD. Methods. 164 ADHD children attending to Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Clinics compared with 166 normal children selected in a random-cluster method from primary schools. ADHD rating scale and clinical interview based on Schedule for Affective disorders and Schizophrenia for School-Aged Children (K-SADS) were used to diagnose ADHD cases and to select the control group. Results. The mean maternal age at pregnancy, duration of pregnancy, and the mean paternal age were alike in two groups. The ADHD children's mothers compared with those of control group had higher frequencies of somatic diseases, psychiatric disorders, and alcohol and cigarette exposure during the pregnancies (P < 0.01). Also birth by cesarean section was more common among mothers of ADHD children (P < 0.001). These factors plus trauma to the abdomen during pregnancy were significantly predictors of ADHD in children. Conclusions. Some pregnancy-related maternal factors may be considered as environmental risk factors for ADHD. Each of these factors considered in our study as a risk factor needs to be tested and confirmed through next methodologically appropriate researches in this field

Sleep disturbances in bereavement:A systematic review

Severe, persistent and disabling grief occurs among a sizable minority experiencing bereavement, with diagnostic manuals newly including complicated grief (CG) disorders. Sleep disturbances/disorders have been established as worsening affective and stress-related conditions. However, the role of sleep difficulties in bereavement and CG has not received similar scientific attention. We therefore conducted a systematic review with narrative syntheses on this topic to clarify the role of sleep in bereavement (PROSPERO: CRD42018093145). We searched PubMed, Web of Science and PsychInfo for peer-reviewed English-language articles including (at least one) bereaved sample and sleep disturbance measure. We identified 85 articles on 12.294 participants. We answered seven pre-defined research questions demonstrating: high prevalence of sleep disturbances in bereavement; positive associations of grief intensity with sleep difficulties; preliminary indications of risk factors of post-loss sleep disturbance; higher prevalence of sleep disturbances in CG, enhanced by psychiatric comorbidity (i.e., depression); and initial evidence of causal relationships between (complicated) grief and sleep. Grief therapy partly improves sleep difficulties, yet no intervention studies have specifically targeted sleep problems in bereaved persons. Causal relationships between sleep and grief require further examination in intensive longitudinal investigations, including randomized trials, thereby clarifying whether treating sleep problems enhances CG treatment effects

Children's relative age in class and use of medication for ADHD: a Danish Nationwide Study

Background: Previous studies from North America and Iceland have shown that the youngest children within a grade are up to twice as likely to be diagnosed and treated for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) compared with their older classmates. We aimed to investigate whether younger age in class is associated with an increased probability of being prescribed medication for ADHD among school-aged children in Denmark. Methods: We followed all Danish children between 2000 and 2012 from 1st through 6th grade (7–12 years). Among children who started school on their age-assigned grade level, we estimated the prevalence proportion ratio (PPR) of receiving ADHD medication between the youngest children in class (born in October–December) and the oldest in class (born in January–March), specified by grade level, calendar year and gender. As a sensitivity analysis, we added children not on their age-assigned grade level to the main calculations. Results: We identified 932,032 eligible children for the main analysis, of whom 17.3% were among the youngest and 26.5% among the oldest in class. In total, 1.2% eligible children filled at least one prescription for ADHD medication in 2000–2012. The average PPR over the study period was 1.08 (95% CI, 1.04–1.12) and remained stable across subgroups and sensitivity analyses. Overall, 40% of children born October–December had entered school a year after their age-assigned grade level. Conclusions: Contrary to previous study results, we observed almost no relative age effect on medication use for ADHD among children in Denmark. We postulate that this may be due to the high proportion of relatively young children held back by 1 year in the Danish school system and/or a generally low prevalence of ADHD medication use in the country

Volatile organic compounds and consumer preference for meat from suckling goat kids raised with natural or replacers milk

Most of European Union goats are slaughtered with carcase weights between 5 kg and 11 kg. Some farmers rear kids with milk replacers to produce cheese with the dams’ milk. The aim of this experiment was to study the volatile compounds (VOCs) of meat of suckling light kids reared with natural milk or milk replacers and to study the influence of consumers’ psychographic characteristics on the sensory preference for meat. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry was performed to identify the VOCs and consumers evaluated the flavour, juiciness and overall acceptability. Thirty-five VOCs were detected and 44.3%, 25.1%, 6.9% and 2.3%, were aldehydes, hydrocarbons, ketones and alcohols, respectively. The influence of the rearing system on VOCs clearly depended on the breed. The use of milk replacers did not affect the percentage of linear aldehydes compared to the use of natural milk. However, the major aldehyde, hexanal (34.8%), was related to the use of natural milk and correlated positively with both the flavour (r = 0.21) and overall acceptability (r = 0.24). On the other hand, hydrocarbons such as hexane were related to MR, and 2-methyl-pentane and 3-methyl pentane were correlated with the acceptability of flavour (r = −0.22 and −0.25, respectively) and with the overall acceptability (r = −0.21 and −0.24). The 2-penthyl furan and 2-ethyl-1-hexanol were correlated with the overall acceptability (r = −0.22 and −0.22, respectively). Therefore, the acceptability of meat from suckling kids fed natural milk was greater for older consumers and people with a moderate consumption of meat.Unión Europea, Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad (MINECO). [RTA2012-0023-C03]; CYTED [116RT0503

Association of stress-related disorders with subsequent risk of all-cause and cause-specific mortality : A population-based and sibling-controlled cohort study

Funding Information: This work was supported by EU Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Action Grant (847776 to Drs Valdimarsdóttir and Fang), 1.3.5 Project for Disciplines of Excellence, West China Hospital, Sichuan University (ZYYC21005 to Dr Song), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (81971262 to Dr Song), Grant of Excellence, Icelandic Research Fund (163362 to Dr Valdimarsdóttir), the ERC Consolidator Grant (StressGene 726413 to Dr Valdimarsdóttir), and Swedish Research Council (2016-02234 to Dr Valdimarsdóttir). Publisher Copyright: © 2022 The Author(s)Background: Prior research provides suggestive evidence on an association between stress-related disorders and mortality. No previous study has however addressed the role of familial confounding on such association. Methods: We conducted a nationwide cohort study of 189,757 individuals with a first-onset stress-related disorder between January 1, 1981 and December 31, 2016 in Sweden (i.e., exposed patients), 1,896,352 matched unexposed individuals, and 207,479 unaffected full siblings of the exposed patients. Cox proportional hazards models were used to estimate the hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of all-cause and cause-specific mortality. Findings: During a mean follow-up of 9.42 years, an elevated risk of all-cause mortality was observed during the entire follow-up among patients with stress-related disorders, compared with either unexposed individuals or their unaffected full siblings. Such excess risk was most pronounced within the first year after diagnosis of stress-related disorders (HR, 3.19 [95% CI, 2.87-3.54] in population-based comparison; HR, 3.21 [95% CI, 2.56-4.02] in sibling-based comparison). The excess risk decreased but remained statistically significant thereafter (HR, 1.64 [95% CI, 1.60-1.67] in population-based comparison; HR, 1.61 [95% CI, 1.54-1.68] in sibling-based comparison). An increased risk was observed for almost all cause-specific mortality, with greater risk increase for deaths from unnatural causes, especially suicide, and potentially avoidable causes. Interpretation: Stress-related disorders were associated with an increased risk of all-cause mortality and multiple cause-specific mortality, and the risk elevation was independent of familial confounding. The excess mortality attributable to unnatural causes and potentially avoidable causes highlights the importance of clinical surveillance of major health hazards among patients with stress-related disorders. Funding: EU Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Action Grant, 1.3.5 Project for Disciplines of Excellence at West China Hospital of Sichuan University, National Natural Science Foundation of China, Icelandic Research Fund (Grant of Excellence), ERC Consolidator Grant, and Swedish Research Council.Peer reviewe

Maternal risk factors and neonatal outcomes associated with low birth weight in a secondary referral hospital in Ghana

Over the past decade, the incidence of low birth weight (LBW) in sub-Saharan Africa has not seen any decline and this is a matter of grave concern for healthcare providers, policymakers, and researchers. Therefore, this study aimed to assess the incidence of LBW and related maternal risk factors (during pregnancy or delivery) as well as neonatal outcomes.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Perinatal mental health: how nordic data sources have contributed to existing evidence and future avenues to explore

Purpose Perinatal mental health disorders affect a significant number of women with debilitating and potentially life-threatening consequences. Researchers in Nordic countries have access to high quality, population-based data sources and the possibility to link data, and are thus uniquely positioned to fill current evidence gaps. We aimed to review how Nordic studies have contributed to existing evidence on perinatal mental health. Methods We summarized examples of published evidence on perinatal mental health derived from large population-based longitudinal and register-based data from Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden. Results Nordic datasets, such as the Danish National Birth Cohort, the FinnBrain Birth Cohort Study, the Icelandic SAGA cohort, the Norwegian MoBa and ABC studies, as well as the Swedish BASIC and Mom2B studies facilitate the study of prevalence of perinatal mental disorders, and further provide opportunity to prospectively test etiological hypotheses, yielding comprehensive suggestions about the underlying causal mechanisms. The large sample size, extensive follow-up, multiple measurement points, large geographic coverage, biological sampling and the possibility to link data to national registries renders them unique. The use of novel approaches, such as the digital phenotyping data in the novel application-based Mom2B cohort recording even voice qualities and digital phenotyping, or the Danish study design paralleling a natural experiment are considered strengths of such research. Conclusions Nordic data sources have contributed substantially to the existing evidence, and can guide future work focused on the study of background, genetic and environmental factors to ultimately define vulnerable groups at risk for psychiatric disorders following childbirth

Mortality from suicide among people living with HIV and the general Swiss population: 1988-2017.

In many countries, mortality due to suicide is higher among people living with HIV than in the general population. We aimed to analyse trends in suicide mortality before and after the introduction of triple combination antiretroviral therapy (cART), and to identify risk factors associated with death from suicide in Switzerland. We analysed data from the Swiss HIV Cohort Study from the pre-cART (1988-1995), earlier cART (1996-2008) and later cART (2009-2017) eras. We used multivariable Cox regression to assess risk factors for death due to suicide in the ART era and computed standardized mortality ratios (SMRs) to compare mortality rates due to suicide among persons living with HIV with the general population living in Switzerland, using data from the Swiss National Cohort. We included 20,136 persons living with HIV, of whom 204 (1.0%) died by suicide. In men, SMRs for suicide declined from 12.9 (95% CI 10.4-16.0) in the pre-cART era to 2.4 (95% CI 1.2-5.1) in the earlier cART and 3.1 (95% CI 2.3-4.3) in the later cART era. In women, the corresponding ratios declined from 14.2 (95% CI 7.9-25.7) to 10.2 (3.8-27.1) and to 3.3 (95% CI 1.5-7.4). Factors associated with death due to suicide included gender (adjusted hazard ratio 0.58 (95% CI 0.38-0.87) comparing women with men), nationality (1.95 (95% CI 1.34-2.83) comparing Swiss with other), Centers for Disease Control and Prevention clinical stage (0.33 (95% CI 0.24-0.46) comparing stage A with C), transmission group (2.64 (95% CI 1.71-4.09) for injection drug use and 2.10 (95% CI 1.36-3.24) for sex between men compared to other), and mental health (2.32 (95% CI 1.71-3.14) for a history of psychiatric treatment vs. no history). There was no association with age. Suicide rates have decreased substantially among people living with HIV in the last three decades but have remained about three times higher than in the general population since the introduction of cART. Continued emphasis on suicide prevention among men and women living with HIV is important

Post-Partum Psychosis: Which Women Are at Highest Risk?

Phillipa Hay discusses the implications of a new study of psychotic illness and its risk factors up to 90 days postpartum in first-time Swedish mothers