Biomedical subjects

Eeva T Aronen

Publications and source records attributed to Eeva T Aronen.

9 recordsLinked to original sources

PubMed2005

Does sleep quality affect involuntary attention switching system?

We studied the relationship between sleep quality and quantity and subsequently recorded automatically evoked event-related potential (ERP) responses. In previous studies decrement of attentional processing has been associated with changes in sleep. Sleep is shown to associate also with ERPs elicited by unattended sound stream, however, there is no consensus on these effects. A recent study suggested that the early anterior P3a to novel stimuli in attended stream is attenuated and the late parietal P3a is strengthened by total sleep deprivation. We carried out 72-h consecutive actigraphy measurements in a naturalistic setting to collect information about variation in sleep duration, sleep onset latency, sleep efficiency, and percentage of sleep. MMN and P3a deflections to infrequent changes in sound duration and pitch in unattended sound stream were obtained in a separate recording session from the same subjects when they were awake. No significant correlations were found between sleep and MMN parameters, indicating that MMN is resistant to normal variation in sleep. However, P3a to both pitch and duration changes correlated positively with sleep onset latency, and P3a to duration changes correlated negatively with sleep efficiency and percentage of sleep. The correlation was higher in the posterior scalp areas. Our results suggest that the involuntary attention switching system, reflected by the P3a is sensitized as a function of decreased sleep quality.

Acoustic Stimulation↗

PubMed2004

Mental health service use among 18-year-old adolescent boys: a prospective 10-year follow-up study.

OBJECTIVE: To study prevalence and factors associated with mental health service use among 18-year-old adolescent boys. METHOD: Predictors at age 8 and factors at age 18 associated with mental health service use during the preceding 12 months were studied in a general population sample of 2,316 Finnish boys born in 1981 attending military call-up (79% of the original sample). RESULTS: Within the preceding 12 months, 2.1% of the boys had used mental health services. At age 18, internalizing, anxious-depressive, and withdrawal symptoms; health problems; not living with parents; use of illicit drugs; high level of alcohol use; and regular smoking were independently associated with service use. At age 8, a high level of emotional and behavioral symptoms, need for referral, and low school performance according to teacher evaluations predicted service use 10 years later. CONCLUSIONS: Only a minority of adolescents with severe problems had used mental health services. Because of the wide range of problems and comorbidity among service users, there is a need for integration of different services. Education services have a central role in the early detection of those who will later use mental health services.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2003

Effectiveness of melatonin in the treatment of sleep disturbances in children with Asperger disorder.

Sleep disturbances are common in patients with Asperger disorder. Although these sleep problems are often persistent and may significantly impair the child's daytime well-being, no treatment studies have been reported. In this open clinical trial, the effectiveness of melatonin was studied in a sample of 15 children with Asperger disorder (13 boys, 2 girls) aged 6-17 years using several questionnaires and actigraph measurements. They included assessments of sleep quality, tiredness, and behavior. Melatonin (3 mg/day) was used for 14 days. All the measurements were made three times: before the treatment period, during the treatment (days 12-14), and 3 weeks after the discontinuation of the treatment. The sleep patterns of all the children improved, and half of them displayed excellent responses to melatonin. In particular, actigraphically measured sleep latency decreased from 40.02 +/- 24.09 minutes to 21.82 +/- 9.64 minutes (p = 0.002), whereas sleep duration remained steady at 477.40 +/- 55.56 minutes and 480.48 +/- 50.71 minutes. Despite the short duration of the treatment, behavioral measures also displayed a significant improvement, and most of the effect disappeared after the discontinuation of the melatonin (p = 0.001). In conclusion, melatonin may provide an interesting new and well-tolerated treatment option for children with Asperger disorder suffering from chronic insomnia. However, these results must be confirmed in a controlled study.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2003

Four-year follow-up study of sleep and psychiatric symptoms in preadolescents: relationship of persistent and temporary sleep problems to psychiatric symptoms.

The course of sleep disturbances in preadolescents was assessed during a 4-year follow-up, and psychiatric problems associated with persistent and temporary sleep problems were investigated in an epidemiological setting. A representative random sample of 1,290 children, their parents, and school teachers filled out various questionnaires when the children were aged 8 and 12 years. Response rates to the relevant items varied between 66.8% and 81.2%. Parental reports of sleep problems decreased from 23.4% to 9.1% during the 4-year period, whereas children's reports remained steady at 18%. Persistent sleep disturbances were found in 12% of children, and 33.3% of sleep problems reported at age 8 were continued. Both current and persistent sleep disturbances were associated with the broad range of mental health problems reported by teachers. However, multivariate modeling suggested that especially current sleep problems were associated with an increased risk for psychiatric problems (odds ratio [OR] 2.45; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.20-4.99), particularly emotional problems (OR 2.92; 95% CI 1.58-5.38).

Child↗

PubMed2002

Actigraph placement and sleep estimation in children.

STUDY OBJECTIVES: To determine whether actigraph placement affects sleep estimation in children. DESIGN: Descriptive study. SETTING: Naturalistic setting. PARTICIPANTS: Twenty children aged 7-12 years from primary schools. INTERVENTIONS: N/A. MEASUREMENTS: Motor activity was measured from the waist and non-dominant wrist with actigraphs for three consecutive days during a school week. RESULTS: The minute-by-minute agreement of sleep-wake states between the two measurement sites was 92.5%. Wrist- and waist-recorded sleep parameters correlated well and the mean values did not differ. CONCLUSIONS: Although the placement of the actigraph slightly affected the measured activity parameters, its influence on 3-night mean sleep estimates in children was not statistically significant.

Adolescent↗

PubMed2002

Day length associates with activity level in children living at 60 degrees north.

The associations between day length and activity, rest-activity rhythm, and psychiatric symptoms were studied. Sixty-six healthy children participated in the study during one year. They were monitored for 72 consecutive hours with belt-worn activity monitors (actigraphs) to obtain objective data on their activity levels during the day and night. In addition, the parents filled out the Child Behavior Checklists. It was found, that the mean total and day and night time activity levels were increased and the relative circadian amplitude blunted with the longer day length. It was concluded that day length was associated with activity level and rest-activity rhythm and this association may reflect the seasonal changes in these parameters.

Child↗

PubMed2002

Psychopharmacological treatment of child and adolescent psychiatric inpatients in Finland.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to investigate the use of psychopharmacological treatment in child and adolescent psychiatric inpatient treatment in Finland. METHODS: The study is a cross-sectional study conducted in January 2000. The psychiatrist responsible for the inpatient treatment was asked to fill in a questionnaire for every inpatient who occupied a child or adolescent psychiatric bed during the chosen study day (n = 504 patients). Information on psychopharmacological treatment was obtained for 475 patients. RESULTS: Forty-three percent had scheduled medication and 28% had "as required" medication. Of those with scheduled medication, 56% had neuroleptics and 45% antidepressants. In multivariate analysis, older age (13-18 years), involuntary treatment, and psychotic disorder were independently associated with scheduled medication, neuroleptic treatment, and as required medication prescription. Neurolepic treatment was also associated with a very low general functioning level (Children's Global Assessment Scale < 41). A diagnosis of depression and older age were associated with antidepressant treatment. Almost all patients with antidepressant treatment were treated with selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors. CONCLUSIONS: Compared with data from a similarly conducted study in 1988, there is an increase especially in the use of antidepressant medication in inpatient care. Considering the increasing use of psychopharmacotherapy during the last 10 years as shown in the present study, the lack of research-based data on the efficacy and safety supporting their clinical use is a major problem in the treatment of disabling childhood mental health problems.

Adolescent↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Audiospatial and visuospatial working memory in 6-13 year old school children.

The neural processes subserving working memory, and brain structures underlying this system, continue to develop during childhood. We investigated the effects of age and gender on audiospatial and visuospatial working memory in a nonclinical sample of school-aged children using n-back tasks. The results showed that auditory and visual working memory performance improves with age, suggesting functional maturation of underlying cognitive processes and brain areas. The gender differences found in the performance of working memory tasks suggest a larger degree of immaturity in boys than girls at the age period of 6-10 yr. The differences observed between the mastering of auditory and visual working memory tasks may indicate that visual working memory reaches functional maturity earlier than the corresponding auditory system.

Age Factors↗

PubMedDate not supplied

Mental disorders in adolescents with celiac disease.

A high prevalence of depressive symptoms, hypothetically related to serotonergic dysfunction, has been reported among adults with celiac disease. The authors used semistructured psychiatric interviews and symptom measurement scales to study mental disorders in 29 adolescents with celiac disease and 29 matched comparison subjects. Relative to the comparison subjects, the celiac disease patients had significantly higher lifetime prevalences of major depressive disorder (31% versus 7%) and disruptive behavior disorders (28% versus 3%). In most cases these disorders preceded the diagnosis of celiac disease and its treatment with a gluten-free diet. The prevalence of current mental disorders was similar in both groups. Celiac disease in adolescents is associated with an increased prevalence of depressive and disruptive behavioral disorders, particularly in the phase before diet treatment.

Adolescent↗