Browsing by Subject "masentuneisuus"

This review focuses on neurotrophic factors, especially CDNF, and Amyotropic lateral sclerosis (ALS). This review finds out which neurotrophic factors have been studied in clinical trials of ALS and what kind of results have been got. Neurotrophic factors are important for development and function of neurons because they prevent apoptosis of neurons. They also play role in differentiation, development and migration of neurons. It is also known that many of the neurotrophic factors have protective and restorative properties. ALS is a rare neurodegenerative disease which causes the destruction of motor neurons and leads to death in three years. The disease degenerate the upper and lower motor neurons. Symptoms are muscle weakness, muscle atrophy, cramps and problems with swallowing. At the moment there is no cure for ALS so it is important to study neurotrophic factors that could prevent the progression of the disease and perhaps to protect or repair destroyed motor neurons. This is why it is important to study potential of CDNF in ALS. The experimental part consists of three different parts. The purpose of the first part study was to determine the distribution of CDNF after intraventricular delivery at different time points. CDNF was labeled with 125I (125I-CDNF). The distribution was determined by gammacounter and autoradiography. To determine the stability of the injected 125-I CDNF we performed SDS-PAGE. The second part studied the diffusion volume of CDNF after intraventricular injection with seven wild type mice. After stereotaxic surgery CDNF-immunohistochemistry staining from coronal sections was done. The last experimental part studied the effect of single intracerebral injection of CDNF on motivation, locomotor activity, anxiety and depression with male and female mice. Light-dark box, open field, rotarod, forced swim test (FST), elevated plus maze and fear conditioning were carried out with male mice. After behavioural tests mice were sacrified for HPLC-analysis. Light-dark box and IntelliCage were carried out with female mice before c-fos staining. Gammacounter and autoradiography shows that 125I-CDNF distributes widely after intracerebroventricular injection. It spread throughout to the brain and also all the way to the spinal cord after one and three hours from injection. After 24 hours 125I-CDNF was cleared so the CDNF signal was very weak. SDS-PAGE showed the stability of radioactive CDNF. CDNF increased locomotor activity and decreased anxiety in male mice. But a statistically significant difference appeared in forced swim test and fear conditioning test. HPLC-analysis supported these results partly. CDNF also increased motivation of female mice in IntelliCage experiment. C-fos staining was observed in CDNF group and PBS group so quantitative analysis should be done from these sections so that reliable conclusions could be done. However, because CDNF distributed to spinal cord and it showed some effect on locomotor activity, motivation and depression it might be potential for ALS disease.

My master's thesis examines the dimensions of well-being in sixth-graders (school engagement, self-esteem, school burnout and depression) as well as their relations to each other. This thesis focuses on how social factors can predict the dimensions of well-being. Previous studies have shown that adolescent's school engagement has a positive effect even later in working life. According to research the support of classmates, teacher and family is related to the well-being in adolescents. The results of this study can be used to develop tools for support the well-being of adolescents. In addition, it might be useful for the future research of adolescents’ well-being. This is a quantitative study, and the research material was collected as part of the #Uuttakoulua - project. However, my thesis is not part of the project. The data was collected in three different schools in the metropolitan area surrounding Helsinki, and it consist of 156 respondents; 99 of them belongs to the experimental group with strength-based education and 57 belongs to the comparison group. Participants in the study were sixth-graders and their answers were filled by an online questionnaire. IBM SPSS Statistics 27 was used for data analysis. I used statistical methods to answer my research questions (independent sample t-test, means - standard deviations, Pearson correlation coefficient, linear regression analysis). The results showed that the well-being of sixth-graders is generally good. They experienced more school engagement and higher self-esteem than school burnout and depression. The dimensions of well-being correlate statistically significantly with each other, for example self-esteem and depression had a quite strong negative correlation. Based on the results, support of the family seemed to have a more significant impact on students’ well-being than other social factors.

Objective: Some of those who have been infected by COVID-19 develop long-term symptoms. WHO defines the post COVID-19 condition as appearing typically within 3 months from the infection and lasting at least 2 months. The COVID-19 pandemic is known to have globally weakened the mental health of the population and there tends to be mental health symptoms during the acute phase of the disease as well. The aim of this study was to investigate, how long-term COVID-19 symptoms associate with mental health of the patients. The depression and anxiety levels perceived 6 months after the acute phase were compared between patients suffering from long-term COVID-19 symptoms and patients without any long-term symptoms. Methods: The data were gathered as a part of the RECOVID-research project organized by University of Helsinki and HUS Helsinki University Hospital. The data of this study consists of 140 patients who had COVID-19 with differing required levels of care in the acute phase of the infection. These levels of care were either intensive care, regular hospital care or no hospital care. The patients were divided into two groups based on whether there appeared any long-term COVID-19 symptoms after 3 months from the acute phase (37.1%, average age 56.2 years), or not (62.9%, average age 52.7 years). The connection between observed long-term COVID-19 symptoms after 3 months from the acute phase and observed depression and anxiety at the 6-month time point were analysed with a general linear model. Results and conclusions: Mood related symptoms and long-term COVID-19 symptoms perceived 3 months after the acute illness were associated with more symptoms of depression and anxiety when 6 months had passed after the acute phase. Furthermore, increased age was found to have a statistically significant association with to less severe levels of anxiety at 6 months. However, the levels of care required during the acute phase did not associate with depression and anxiety at the 6-month time point. In line with previous studies, long-term COVID-19 symptoms were associated with prevalence of depression and anxiety symptoms. More research is needed to investigate the causes and the length of these symptoms for developing the mental health services provided to COVID-19 patients.

Aims of the study Most adolescents use social media. As the amount of social media use increases the likelihood of being cyberbullied increases. Both the amount of social media use and cyberbullying victimization are known to be associated with depression. In this study we examine whether cyberbullying victimization mediates the association between the amount of social media use and depression among girls and boys. Methods The sample of this study (girls: n=5647, boys: n=5535) consisted of British youth who participated in Millenium Cohort Study in 2015 and who were 14 years old at the time. The amount of social media use was measured by the following question: “On a normal week day during term time, how many hours do you spend on social networking or messaging sites or Apps on the internet such as Facebook, Twitter and WhatsApp?”. Being cyberbullied was measured asking the youth “How often have other children sent you unwanted or nasty emails, texts or messages or posted something nasty about you on a website?”. Depression was measured by Short Moods and Feelings Questionnaire. Logistic regression analysis was used as the main statistical method. Results and conclusions Compared to those who used very little social media (less than one hour daily), the amount of social media use was associated with greater probability of depression when social media was used daily at least for an hour among girls (1-3 h: OR=1.27, 3-7 h: OR=2.34, over 7 h: OR=3.59) and over three hours among boys (3-7 h: OR=1.52, over 7 h: OR=2.75). Greater amount of social media use was associated with greater probability of cyberbullying victimization among girls (1-3 h: OR=1.78, 3-7 h: OR=3.24, over 7 h: OR=4.21) and boys (1-3 h: OR=1.73, 3-7 h: OR=2.41, over 7 h: OR=2.72). Cyberbullying victimization was associated with greater probability of depression among girls (OR=3.47) and boys (OR=4.23). Cyberbullying victimization mediated the association between the amount of social media use and depression among both girls and boys. Cyberbullying victimization seems to be more strongly associated with depression than the amount of social media use. Conclusions about the directions of the associations cannot be drawn because of the cross-sectional nature of this study.