PubMed Health⌕ Search

Biomedical subjects

H Ebeling

Publications and source records attributed to H Ebeling.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2004

Is a large family a protective factor against behavioural and emotional problems at the age of 8 years?

AIM: To study the prevalence of behavioural and emotional problems among children from different family types, sibship size and birth order. METHODS: A prospective birth cohort (n = 9357) study where parents filled in two questionnaires and teachers assessed children's behaviour using the Rutter scale (RB2). RESULTS: 14.3% scored above the cut-off point (RB2 > or = 9) indicating probable psychiatric disturbance, boys more often than girls (OR 2.6, 95% CI 2.3-3.0). Behavioural problems (9.2%) were more common than emotional ones (4.1%). Boys living in families other than two-parent families were at risk for probable psychiatric disturbance, and a corresponding risk was observed for girls living in single-parent or always one-parent families. Other than two-parent family was also a risk for behavioural problems; for boys adjusted odds ratios ranged significantly from 1.8 to 2.4 and for girls from 2.0 to 3.7. "Only children" had the highest prevalence of behavioural problems, while children in very large families had the lowest. Living in a very large family was a protective factor against behavioural problems among boys but not among girls. Eldest children were at lower risk of behavioural problems than the other children. The single-parent and always one-parent family was associated with higher risk of emotional problems among girls. CONCLUSION: Children's psychiatric problems are manifested at school mostly as behavioural problems. A two-parent family and being the oldest in the sibling series seem to be protective factors. Very large family size, if not connected to social disadvantages, does not seem to be a risk factor for children's behaviour.

Child↗
PubMed2003

Total plasma l-tryptophan, free l-tryptophan and competing amino acid levels in a homicidal male adolescent with conduct disorder.

OBJECTIVE: Several studies have shown abnormal findings in human serotonin metabolism, such as increased total plasma l-tryptophan and free l-tryptophan levels among habitually violent antisocial offenders. It is not clear if these increased l-tryptophan levels are associated with adult antisocial personality disorder (ASP) or history of substance abuse, or if these levels are already present in adolescent subjects with conduct disorder (CD). METHOD: Total plasma and free l-tryptophan and competing amino acids (CAAs) were measured in a 15-year-old adolescent offender, who was convicted for two homicides, and in 10 healthy male controls of similar age and body mass index (BMI). RESULTS: In the juvenile offender, plasma total l-tryptophan/CAA was 84% and free l-tryptophan/CAA 143% higher than average mean among controls. CONCLUSION: From this very aggressive boy with CD, findings of free l- and total l-tryptophan/CAA values were similar to those of habitually violent adult ASP offenders. As severe CDs in adolescence tend to develop into adults with ASP, increased l-tryptophan/CAA and free l-tryptophan/CAA values may serve as early indicators for the development of habitually violent adult offenders.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2001

Somatically expressed psychological distress and alexithymia in adolescence--reflecting unbearable emotions?

The characteristics of five 11- to 15-year-old patients with somatic symptoms and alexithymia in conjunction with psychological distress are reported. The findings are compared with the existing literature. Preceding somatic disorders and difficulties at school and in peer relationships were found. Family violence was evident in two cases. We postulate that the developmental tasks of adolescence were complicated by the threat of disability, disease, and death. The parents were incapable of expressing their feelings either in general or because of their recent traumatic experiences. Our findings suggest that unbearable emotions often precede the combination of preadolescent and adolescent alexithymia and somatization in clinically relevant cases.

Adolescent↗
PubMed2000

Elevated hypothalamic/midbrain serotonin (monoamine) transporter availability in depressive drug-naive children and adolescents.

Cumulative data suggest depression in adulthood being connected to reduced availability of brain serotonin while the role of dopamine remains less specific. Prospective studies have shown a continuity of depressive episodes from childhood to adulthood, combined with poor social function and excess mortality. The object of this study was to examine whether alterations in brain serotonin and/or dopamine transporter levels are already present in depressive children and adolescents. We examined 41 drug-naive patients (aged 7-17) by single photon emission tomography (SPET) using iodine-123-labelled 23-carbomethoxy-3P3(iodophenyl) tropane [123I]beta-CIT as a tracer for monoamine transporters. In addition to the ordinary clinical examination, the patients were given a structured interview and information was gathered from teachers and parents with questionnaires. The diagnoses were established by consensus evaluation between three child psychiatrists. To test the serotonin hypothesis and the dopamine hypothesis regarding depression in children and adolescents, the series was divided into groups with depression present (31) and no depression present (10). In this study, the depressive child and adolescent patients had significantly higher serotonin transporter availability (P < 0.02) in the hypothalamic/midbrain area. Age did not correlate to the hypothalamic/midbrain serotonin transporter binding ratio. No significant difference in dopamine transporter availability in striatum was found between the depressive and the nondepressive children and adolescents.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1999

Are twins' behavioural/emotional problems different from singletons'?

We compared twins with singletons in the National Epidemiological Child Psychiatric Study, which included 122 twins and 5455 singletons, born in 1981 and selected at random. Behavioural and emotional symptoms were assessed in 1989 on the basis of questionnaires filled in by the parents (Rutter Parent Questionnaire) (RA2), teachers (Rutter Teacher Questionnaire) (RB2) and the children themselves (Children's Depression Inventory) (CDI). Parents' reported proportions of probable behavioural/emotional disorders did not differ between the twin and singleton girls, but among the twin boys there was a nonsignificant trend of being more often probably disturbed. Twins were reported to be less disturbed than singletons according to the teachers' assessments. No difference was found between twins and singletons in their self-reports. When analysing parents' reported values of various sum scores, the twin boys obtained slightly higher scores than singletons, while twin girls scored significantly lower on total and emotional disturbances. Twin boys obtained lower mean scores than singletons for probable disorder in the teachers' evaluations, the differences arising mostly in the emotional area. The same type of trend, however nonsignificant, was found among the teachers' evaluations of girls. No significant difference was found in the mean scores for hyperactivity. This large population-based sample suggests that twins may have a lower rate of behavioural problems in childhood than singletons, a finding that has to be taken into account in behavioural genetic studies.

Child↗
PubMed1999

Smoking and drinking habits in adolescence--links with psychiatric disturbance at the age of 8 years.

Smoking and drinking habits were studied among 1098 14-15-year-old adolescents using a mailed questionnaire. The subjects were drawn from a representative population of 5813 randomly selected 8-year-old children previously studied in the National Epidemiological Child Psychiatry Study in Finland in 1989. The questionnaire included items on the adolescents' smoking habits and alcohol consumption. Regular smoking was more common among boys (and girls) who, in childhood, had been rated by their parents (Rutter Parent Questionnaire) (RA2) as disturbed, 14.6% (30.3%), than among the nondisturbed, 6.6% (8.4%). Similarly, more of the previously disturbed (according to the RA2) adolescent boys drank alcohol regularly, 19.7%, as compared to the nondisturbed boys, 9.3%. Among girls, regular alcohol consumption was more common among those who previously had behavioural or mixed type problems (according to the RA2), 70.7%, as compared to those who previously had emotional or no problems, 12.2%. More of the previously depressed girls smoked regularly, 45.1%, than those who had not been depressed, 7.9%. Behavioural and emotional problems in childhood seemed to predispose to smoking and drinking in adolescence. The parents were more sensitive than the teachers in recognising the long-lasting problems of their children.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1999

Psychiatric symptoms in children with intellectual disability.

In a sample of almost 6000 8-year-old children, we found that 1.5% attended special schools for the educationally subnormal, or training schools. Psychiatric symptoms were studied by means of three screening instruments: the Rutter Parent Questionnaire (RA2) for the parents, the Rutter Teacher Questionnaire (RB2) for the teachers, and the Children's Depression Inventory (CDI) for the children. The prevalence rate of children identified as possibly suffering from a psychiatric disturbance was 32.2% according to the RA2. The corresponding prevalence rate for the RB2 was 34.2%. According to the CDI 11.0% had depressive disturbance. All types of disturbances were more frequent among the intellectually disabled children as compared to the nondisabled children. The differences were statistically significant for emotional and mixed types of disturbance on the RA2, and for emotional and conduct types of disturbance on the RB2.

Child↗
PubMed1998

To be born as a twin--risks and sequelae.

About 2.5% of infants born in Finland are twins. Twins have long been objects for genetic studies, which nowadays have large study groups, e.g. twin registers from a whole country. Twins can also be studied from another point of view: the special situation of being a twin, and its consequences on development and mental health. Perinatal mortality and morbidity are higher in twins than in singletons, and accordingly cumulative incidences of various handicaps are higher in twins. The human relationships of twins have their special features from the early beginning. Twins have to share the attention from the parents, and some parents resolve the situation by sharing the twins: "mother's child" and "father's child" may develop. Twins may be dependent on each other, and the inter-twin relationship can also be characterized by dominance-submissiveness. In adolescence, the time of getting independence from the parents, twins have also another task of development: they have to grow up from the co-twin dependence in order to become autonomous adults. In comparison to much bigger twin materials of genetic studies, follow-up studies in birth cohorts have their benefits, too. They give us a good opportunity to research the development of human relationships in twin families and their consequences on both somatic and mental health.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

Long-term outcome of migration in childhood and adolescence.

The effect of migration on the family and on the individual can be divided into three groups: cultural, changes in social environment and changes in the interpersonal relations. When successful adaptation is not achieved, acculturative stress may arise and somatic or mental disorders may develop. The finding of individual differences in people's responses to environmental conditions has led to search for vulnerability factors that increase people's susceptibility to stressors and for buffering influences that serve a protecting function under the same circumstances. The studies on migration should focus on somatic and mental health of the migrants, on achievements at school and at work, on protecting factors at different ages of migration and on the role of language acquisition and of social network on the adaptational process. The focus on this review is in childhood, adolescence and young adulthood.

Acculturation↗
PubMed1978

[Kinetic immunological-turbidimetric determination of C-3 protein with a fast analyzer (author's transl)].

A new immunological-turbidimetric method is described for the quantitative determination of individual proteins. It is based on initial rate analysis with fixed time kinetics. The optimal conditions for the analysis of C-3 protein are described, with respect to buffer composition, reaction time, the time interval for measurement of the initial rate, and the concentrations of antigen and antibody. With these optimised, standardised conditions, it is possible to obtain results for 29 samples in 20 seconds, using a reaction time of deltaA/15 seconds. The method is relatively accurate with a day to day variation coefficient of 4.3 for C-3 concentrations of 217.5 mg/l, and 6.4 for concentrations of 435 mg/l. It is therefore suitable for the clinical chemical laboratory. A detailed comparison of this with other methods, and its use in the measurement of patients' sera will be presented elsewhere.

Complement C3↗
PubMed1977

[Quantitative plasma protein determination as an aid to diagnosis (author's transl)].

The lack of internationally comparable reference standards for plasma proteins causes problems. For this reason, it is only possible to evaluate the "accuracy" of measurements by comparison of methods. Differences in results which may sometimes be based on technical procedure, physical chemistry or biology are gone into with reference to diagnostically important examples such as albumin, transferrin, ceruloplasmin, fibrinogen and complement 3. It is shown which plasma protein constellations may frequently be expected in certain reactions and what protein patterns have principal importance in clinical practice, e.g. in acute and chronic inflammatory diseases, protein depletion diseases and in liver diseases.

Acute Disease↗
PubMed1976

[A rapid and precise determination of fibrinogen and its cleavage products (author transl)].

A method is described for the quantitative determination of fibrinogen equivalents in citrated blood before and after removal of the fibrinogen by coagulation. The method employs an immunological reaction, which is measured by mechanized nephelometry. Thus the sum of all the fibrinogen equivalents can be compared with the concentration of "cleavage products". The difference between the two readings represents the concentration of coagulable fibrinogen. For the fibrinogen concentration of 11.15 mg/l, variation coefficients of 2.81% in series and 3.31% for day to day were obtained. The accuracy of a new method was tested under conditions of fibrinogenolysis, and in the presence of heparin, by comparison with simple radial immunodiffusion, and with the "coagulation physiological rapid method for the determination of fibrinogen" after Clauss ((1957), Acta-Haematol, 17, 237-246). In addition 180 citrated blood samples of different patients were compared with the simple radial immunodiffusion, the method of Clauss and the new method. Only the new rapid method appears to measure plausible fibrinogen values, and permits a clear differentiation between coagulable and non-coagulable fibrinogen equivalents. It can be recommended for clinical practice.

Autoanalysis↗
PubMed1975

[Comparison of conventional methods for the determination of albumin, transferrin and ceruloplasmin in serum with immunological reference methods (author's transl)].

Radial immunodiffusion, which is a presently accepted reference method, was compared with the mechanized immunoprecipitation. Each of these specific methods was compared with two normal clinical-chemical methods for the determination of albumin and transferrin, and an enzymic method for the determination of ceruloplasmin. The correlation coefficients, the mean slope for regression, and the percentage variation of the average values from those of the average values of the reference methods are presented. In the determination of albumin and ceruloplasmin, radial immunodiffusion and mechanized immunoprecipitation give the same results. Surprisingly, these two specific methods give different results in the determination of transferrin. In as far as there is no doubt concerning the accuracy of the mechanized immunoprecipitation, this method is recommended, since it also has the advantage of being less demanding in cost and time.

Autoanalysis↗
PubMed1975

[The enzymic and immunological determination of coeruloplasmin: sex- and method-dependent differences during the administration of oestrogens (author's transl)].

After 14 days of 1 mug ethinyloestradiol per kg body weight per day, both sexes show highly significant increases in serum coeruloplasmin which are independent of the determination method. Expressed on a percentage basis, the concentrations of coeruloplasmin under oestrogen medication determined by the p-phenylendiamine oxidase reaction are significantly higher than those determined by the immunological-nephelometric method. This is because several coeruloplasmin components, mainly C and DO, take part in the determination with p-phenylendiamine oxidase, whereas the immunological method measures chiefly the coeruloplasmin DO component. The significant sex differences under oestrogen medication shown by the determination with p-phenylendiamine oxidase, can therefore be explained by the presence of C- and D-coeruloplasmins in women, while the serum of men contains almost exclusively D-coeruloplasmins. Under oestrogen medication, the increase occurs primarily in the DO- coeruloplasmin component, and women also show an increase in coeruloplasmin-C. The significant higher enzymatic concentrations in the serum of the women in contrast to the men are thus plausibly explained. With the immunological assay, the sex differences were only probably significant.

Administration, Oral↗