WHAT'S KNOWN ON THIS SUBJECT: Paternal mental disorders during the postnatal period are associated with an increased risk for behavioral and emotional problems in their children; however, less is known about the effect of fathers' mental health during pregnancy on children' s development.
WHAT THIS STUDY ADDS:The study demonstrated a positive association between fathers' prenatal mental health and their children' s subsequent socioemotional and behavioral development. Psychological distress in fathers was associated with a risk for emotional difficulties in their children at 36 months of age. abstract OBJECTIVE: To examine the association between symptoms of psychological distress in expectant fathers and socioemotional and behavioral outcomes in their children at age 36 months.
METHODS:The current study is based on data from the Norwegian Mother and Child Cohort Study on 31 663 children. Information about fathers' mental health was obtained by self-report (Hopkins Symptom Checklist) in week 17 or 18 of gestation. Information about mothers' pre-and postnatal mental health and children' s socioemotional and behavioral development at 36 months of age was obtained from parent-report questionnaires. Linear multiple regression and logistic regression models were performed while controlling for demographics, lifestyle variables, and mothers' mental health.RESULTS: Three percent of the fathers had high levels of psychological distress. Using linear regression models, we found a small positive association between fathers' psychological distress and children' s behavioral difficulties, B = 0.19 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.15-0.23); emotional difficulties, B = 0.22 (95% CI = 0.18-0.26); and social functioning, B = 0.12 (95% CI = 0.07-0.16). The associations did not change when adjusted for relevant confounders. Children whose fathers had high levels of psychological distress had higher levels of emotional and behavioral problems.CONCLUSIONS: This study suggests that some risk of future child emotional, behavioral, and social problems can be identified during pregnancy. The findings are of importance for clinicians and policy makers in their planning of health care in the perinatal period because this represents a significant opportunity for preventive intervention. Ms Kvalevaag has made a substantial contribution to concept and design of the study and to the analysis and interpretation of data. She is the first author of the manuscript and thus has drafted it and has been responsible for coordinating the communication between coauthors in all stages of the work. Dr Ramchandani made a substantial contribution to the development of research questions and hypotheses and made suggestions for analyses to be performed. He thoroughly revised the manuscript several times and approved of the final version of the manuscript. Dr Hove contributed to the concept and design of the study, development of research questions and hypotheses, and interpretation of results. He critically revised the manuscript, including the final versi...
BackgroundPreoperative mental health seems to have useful predictive value for Health Related Quality of Life (HRQOL) after bariatric surgery. The aim of the present study was to assess pre- and postoperative psychiatric disorders and their associations with pre- and postoperative HRQOL.MethodData were assessed before (n = 127) and one year after surgery (n = 87). Psychiatric disorders were assessed by Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview (M.I.N.I.) and Structured Clinical Interview (SCID-II). HRQOL was assessed by the Short Form 36 (SF-36) questionnaire.ResultsSignificant improvements were found in HRQOL from preoperative assessment to follow-up one year after surgery. For the total study population, the degree of improvement was statistically significant (p values < .001) for seven of the eight SF-36 subscales from preoperative assessment to follow-up one year after surgery. Patients without psychiatric disorders had no impairments in postoperative HRQOL, and patients with psychiatric disorders that resolved after surgery had small impairments on two of the eight SF-36 subscales compared to the population norm (all effect sizes < .5) at follow-up one year after surgery. Patients with psychiatric disorders that persisted after surgery had impaired HRQOL at follow-up one year after surgery compared to the population norm, with effect sizes for the differences from moderate to large (all effect sizes ≥ .6).ConclusionThis study reports the novel finding that patients without postoperative psychiatric disorders achieved a HRQOL comparable to the general population one year after bariatric surgery; while patients with postoperative psychiatric disorders did not reach the HRQOL level of the general population. Our results support monitoring patients with psychiatric disorders persisting after surgery for suboptimal improvements in quality of life after bariatric surgery.Trial RegistrationThe trial is registered at http://www.clinicaltrials.gov prior to patient inclusion (ProtocolID16280).
Background
The identification and treatment of psychiatric disorders in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and ID presents many challenges. We describe the development of a professional network, together with a standardized protocol for clinical assessment, designed to promote clinical competence and professional development in eight clinical centers responsible for providing mental health services to autistic individuals with ID across all four health regions of Norway. Specific aims to describe: (1) patterns of psychiatric and behavior problems in patients treated by the network, (2) patterns of change over time, and (3) the relationship between psychiatric disorders and behavior problems.
Method
A standardized protocol was used to assess individual progress in 132 patients (inpatients and outpatients) with autism and ID over 2 years (at referral (T1), after 1 year (T2), and after 2 years (T3)). Changes in psychiatric symptoms and behavior problems were assessed with the Psychopathology in Autism Checklist (PAC) and Aberrant Behavior Checklist (ABC).
Results
Patients showed significant (p < .001) improvements from T1 to T2 on the psychosis, depression and anxiety subscales of the PAC, but no significant improvement on the obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) subscale. Improvements were maintained from T2 to T3. Patients showed significant (p < .01) improvements on the ABC total score and on all ABC subscales except inappropriate speech from T1 to T2; these improvements were maintained from T2 to T3.
Discussion
The combination of a professional network and a standardized protocol for clinical assessment has promise as a strategy for improving professional competence and facilitating specialized mental health services for autistic individuals with ID and psychiatric disorders across an extensive geographical area.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.