Epidemiology, results of treatment, impact on activity of daily living (ADL), and costs for treatment of digital nerve injuries have not been considered consistently. Case notes of patients of 0-99 years of age living in Malmö municipality, Sweden, who presented with a digital nerve injury and were referred to the Department of Hand Surgery in 1995-2005 were analysed retrospectively. The incidence was 6.2/100 000 inhabitants and year. Most commonly men (75%; median age 29 years) were injured. Isolated nerve injuries and concomitant tendon injuries were equally common. The direct costs (hospital stay, operation, outpatient visits, visits to a nurse and/or a hand therapist) for a concomitant tendon injury was almost double compared with an isolated digital nerve injury (6136 EUR [range, 744-29 689 EUR] vs 2653 EUR [range, 468-6949 EUR]). More than 50% of the patients who worked were injured at work and 79% lost time from work (median 59 days [range 3-337]). Permanent nerve dysfunction for the individual patient with ADL problems and subjective complaints of fumbleness, cold sensitivity, and pain occur in the patients despite surgery. It is concluded that digital nerve injuries, often considered as a minor injury and that affect young people at productive age, cause costs, and disability. Focus should be directed against prevention of the injury and to improve nerve regeneration from different aspects.

Background: Previous studies in adolescents have rarely used validated questionnaires to assess stress and psychiatric symptoms.

Psychiatric symptoms and stress are on the increase among Swedish adolescents. We aimed to study the potential effect and feasibility of two Internet-based self-help programmes, one mindfulness based (iMBI) and the other music based in a randomised controlled trial that targeted adolescents. A total of 283 upper secondary school students in two Swedish schools were randomised to either a waiting list or one of the two programmes, on their own incentive, on schooltime. General psychiatric health (Symptoms Checklist 90), sleep quality (Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index), and perceived stress (Perceived Stress Scale) were assessed before and after the interventions. In total, 202 participants answered the questionnaires. Less than 20 logged into each intervention and only 1 performed a full intervention (iMBI). No significant differences in any of the scales were found between those who logged in and those who did not. The potential effect of Internet-based self-help programmes was not possible to examine due to low compliance rates. Adolescents seem to have a very low compliance with Internet-based self-help programmes if left to their own incentive. There were no associations between the psychiatric and stress-related symptoms at baseline and compliance in any of the intervention groups, and no evidence for differences in compliance in relation to the type of programme. Additional studies are needed to examine how compliance rates can be increased in Internet-based self-help mindfulness programmes in adolescents, as the potentially positive effects of mindfulness are partly related to compliance rates.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00787-017-1035-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Aims: Psychiatric symptoms, sleeping problems and stress are increasing in Swedish adolescents. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that a combination of two potential stressors (i.e., high academic proficiency and high urbanicity) in a school setting would be related to increased stress levels and stress-related symptoms among pupils. Our second aim was to evaluate correlations between perceived stress and psychiatric symptoms, sleep quality and personality traits. Methods: 202 Swedish high-school students from two schools, one with high academic proficiency in the Metropolitan Malmö area and one of average academic proficiency in a medium-sized town, participated. We used Internet-based versions of the following questionnaires: Symptoms Checklist 90 (SCL-90) for general psychiatric symptoms, Perceived Stress Scale (PSS-14) for stress, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) for sleep quality and Eysenck Personality Index (EPI) for personality traits. Results: There was no significant difference between the schools in any of the measured scales. Significant correlations between perceived stress and GSI score, PSQI score and the personality trait Neuroticism were observed. Conclusions: This study suggests no difference between the high academic proficiency/metropolitan school and the average academic proficiency/medium-sized town school in perceived stress levels or stress-related psychiatric symptoms.