Käyttäytymistieteiden tilastomenetelmien jatkokurssi

Toinen laitos (Versio 2.2, 1.1.2002

Tilastollisen kuvauksen perusteet käyttäytymistieteissä

Toinen laitos (Versio 2.2, 1.1.2002

Low self-esteem and high psychological distress are common among depressed adolescents presenting to the Pediatric Emergency Department

Background: Increasing psychiatric disorders and alcohol intoxication challenge the pediatric emergency departments (PEDs) to which adolescents are referred owing to acute alcohol intoxication. Objective: This study examined the degree to which adolescents presenting to PED with alcohol intoxication or deliberate self-harm report symptoms of depression and how they differed from non-depressed patients in terms of alcohol use, perceived social support, psychological distress, self-esteem, and suicidal thoughts. Methods: In a sample of 138 adolescents, 12- to 16-years old (62 % females), we assessed the patients' psychiatric status using self-report scales and analyzed blood samples for alcohol. Before discharge, a consulting psychiatrist interviewed each patient to evaluate possible suicidality and organized aftercare when necessary. The mediating data-driven hypothesis was examined. Adolescents scoring >= 10 on the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) were deemed as screening positive for depression. Results: In 55% of participants, intoxication was by alcohol consumption. Deliberate self-harm was found in 17% of the participants. Of the 138 adolescents, 39 % scored positive on the BDI for depressive symptoms, occurring more commonly in girls. Logistic regression showed that the most significant variables associated with depressive symptoms were female gender, high psychological distress, and low self-esteem. Symptoms of depression served as a mediator between gender and self-esteem and the blood alcohol level. Conclusions: Our findings underscore the importance of identifying mood disorders, suicidality, and self-esteem among adolescents with acute alcohol intoxication at the PED. Intensive psychiatric evaluation in an emergency department is necessary in order to detect those adolescents requiring additional treatment and support.Peer reviewe

Progress in Teachers’ Readiness to Promote Positive Youth Development among Students during the Lions Quest Teaching Workshop

Peer reviewe

The development of the Dealing with Challenging Interaction (DCI) method to evaluate teachers’ social interaction skills

The Dealing with Challenging Interaction (DCI) method was developed to measure social interaction skills of teacher study groups. The participants were 70 teachers from three schools. The inter-rater agreement, Cohen’s kappa, varied between 0.57- 1.00. The discriminant validity was supported by a cluster analysis differentiating between the skilful and less skilful teachers. The results of the supplementary instrument were equivalent to the cluster analysis maintaining criterion oriented validity of the method developed. The DCI appeared to be a reliable and valid tool for measuring teachers’ social interaction skills.Peer reviewe

Masennuslääkkeiden vaikutukset tunteiden käsittelyyn

Vertaisarvioitu. English summaryPeer reviewe

The effect of some listener background factors and task type that contribute to degree of perceived accent ratings in L2 Finnish

This study evaluated the effect of some listener background factors—the listeners’ gender, age, experience of teaching Finnish as a second language, frequency of contact with immigrants, and being a native of the Helsinki Metropolitan Area in Finland— and task type on their degree of perceived accent (DPA) ratings in L2 Finnish. The participants were 31 native-Finnish speakers and 40 nonnative speakers of Turkish origin who ranged in age from 7 to 66 as well as 61 Finnish listeners who evaluated the speech samples for a foreign accent using a 9-point scale. Three speech samples were administered (word pairs, the reading-aloud of sentences, and a spontaneous speech task). The results showed that no marked differences were observed, despite differences in the listeners’ gender, age, Finnish as a L2 teaching experience, frequency of contact with immigrants speaking Finnish as an L2 , and being a native of the Helsinki Metropolitan Area. The results also showed that ratings of native decreased with sample duration and extemporaneity

Masennuslääkkeiden vaikutukset tunteiden käsittelyyn

Masennukseen liittyy emotionaalisen tiedon käsittelyn vääristymiä. Masennuspotilaat esimerkiksi muistavat ja tulkitsevat ympäristön tapahtumia negatiivisesti vääristyneellä tavalla. Masennuksen eri hoitomuodot pyrkivät muovaamaan näitä vääristymiä. Myös masennuslääkkeet vaikuttavat emotionaalisen tiedon käsittelyyn jo ennen kuin masennusoireet väistyvät. Masennuslääkkeet heikentävät aivojen tunneverkoston keskeisten alueiden reaktiivisuutta negatiivisiin ärsykkeisiin ja voimistavat reaktiivisuutta positiivisiin ärsykkeisiin. Dorsolateraalisen etuaivokuoren aktiivisuus voimistuu, mikä viittaa parantuneeseen tunteiden säätelyyn. Masennuslääkkeet vaikuttavat myös laaja-alaisten aivoverkostojen toiminnallisiin yhteyksiin. Nämä varhaiset emotionaalisen prosessoinnin muutokset vaikuttavat ennustavan viikkoja myöhemmin saavutettavaa hoitovastetta. Emotionaalisen tiedonkäsittelyn muutokset saattaisivat siis toimia hoidon valintaa ohjaavina ennustetekijöinä, joita ei nykyisin ole kliinisessä käytössä. Masennuslääkkeiden vaikutusmekanismien tunteminen systeemitasolla on tärkeää myös uusien hoitomuotojen kehittämisen kannalta.</p

Escitalopram enhances synchrony of brain responses during emotional narratives in patients with major depressive disorder

One-week treatment with escitalopram decreases amygdala responses to fearful facial expressions in depressed patients, but it remains unknown whether it also modulates processing of complex and freely processed emotional stimuli resembling daily life emotional situations. Inter-subject correlation (ISC) offers a means to track brain activity during complex, dynamic stimuli in a model-free manner. Twenty-nine treatment-seeking patients with major depressive disorder were randomized in a double-blind study design to receive either escitalopram or placebo for one week, after which functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was performed. During fMRI the participants listened to spoken emotional narratives. Level of ISC between the escitalopram and the placebo group was compared across all the narratives and separately for the episodes with positive and negative valence. Across all the narratives, the escitalopram group had higher ISC in the default mode network of the brain as well as in the fronto-temporal narrative processing regions, whereas lower ISC was seen in the middle temporal cortex, hippocampus and occipital cortex. Escitalopram increased ISC during positive parts of the narratives in the precuneus, medial prefrontal cortex, anterior cingulate and fronto-insular cortex, whereas there was no significant synchronization in brain responses to positive vs negative events in the placebo group. Increased ISC may imply improved emotional synchronization with others, particularly during observation of positive events. Further studies are needed to test whether this contributes to the later therapeutic effect of escitalopram.Peer reviewe