The aim is to document the effectiveness of a preventive family intervention (Family Talk Intervention, FTI) and a brief psychoeducational discussion with parents (Let’s Talk about the Children, LT) on children’s psychosocial symptoms and prosocial behaviour in families with parental mood disorder, when the interventions are practiced in psychiatric services for adults in the finnish national health service. Patients with mood disorder were invited to participate with their families. Consenting families were randomized to the two intervention groups. The initial sample comprised 119 families and their children aged 8–16. Of these, 109 completed the interventions and the baseline evaluation. Mothers and fathers filled out questionnaires including standardized rating scales for children’s symptoms and prosocial behaviour at baseline and at 4, 10 and 18 months post-intervention. The final sample consisted of parental reports on 149 children with 83 complete data sets. Both interventions were effective in decreasing children’s emotional symptoms, anxiety, and marginally hyperactivity and in improving children’s prosocial behaviour. The FTI was more effective than the LT on emotional symptoms particularly immediately after the intervention, while the effect of the LT emerged after a longer interval. The study supports the effectiveness of both interventions in families with depressed parents. The FTI is applicable in cultural settings other than the USA. Our findings provide support for including preventive child mental health measures as part of psychiatric services for mentally ill parents.

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Rather than very low birth weight per se, intrauterine growth retardation, as reflected by small for gestational age status in the very-low-birth-weight subjects, confers a risk for behavioral and emotional adversity related to ADHD in young adulthood.

Children's short sleep duration and sleeping difficulties increase the risk for behavioral symptoms of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

Poor sleep may signal altered neuroendocrine functioning in children. The findings may offer insight into the pathways linking poor sleep with poor health.

SUMMARY The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of various forms of TV exposure on the quality of children's sleep. In this randomized population-based survey questionnaires concerning TV viewing, sleep disturbances, and psychiatric symptoms were administered to 321 parents of children aged 5-6 years. Sleep disturbance scores were the main outcome measures. Active TV viewing and passive TV exposure were related to sleeping difficulties, especially sleep-wake transition disorders and overall sleep disturbances. Particularly, passive TV exposure and viewing adult-targeted TV programs were strongly related to sleep disturbances. The association remained significant when socioeconomic status, family income, family conflicts, the father's work schedule, and the child's psychiatric symptoms were controlled statistically. The adjusted odds ratios were 2.91 (95% CI 1.03-8.17) and 3.01 (95% CI 1.13-8.05), respectively. TV viewing and particularly passive TV exposure and viewing adulttargeted programs significantly increase the risk of sleeping difficulties. The results suggest that health-care professionals should be aware of the association between TV exposure and sleep disturbances.

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.