Browsing by master's degree program "Master's Programme in Psychology"

Objective: Long-term associations of the COVID-19-disease with patients’ wellbeing are not currently well known, but so far evidence of prolonging somatic and mental symptoms after the acute phase have been reported. Patients that have been treated in the ICU or normal wards have been suggested to be in elevated risk for experiencing these symptoms. How prolonging symptoms affect patient’s quality of life has not yet been thoroughly studied. The aim of this study was to investigate how the symptoms reported in three-months follow-up were associated with the quality of life at six-months follow-up of patients treated in the ICU or normal wards and those who were sick at home in six-months follow-up. COVID-19 patients were also compared with healthy controls. Associations between the length of hospital stay and quality of life in ICU and ward patients were also investigated. Methods: The data of this study were collected during the first and second waves of COVID-19 in 2020. This study is a part of the RECOVID-20 project, which is a collaboration project of Helsinki and Uusimaa Hospital District and University of Helsinki. Altogether 241 subjects (54 % women, mean age 54.5) participated in this study (54 % women, mean age 54.5), and the subjects were recruited from four groups: ICU and ward group, patients who were sick at home and healthy controls. Somatic and mental symptoms at three-months of the acute phase were assessed with a telephone survey and a questionnaire was sent to the patients’ home. In the six-months follow-up the patients’ quality of life was assessed with RAND-36 survey that was sent home. The associations of prolonging COVID-19 symptoms with quality of life were analyzed using multivariate covariance analysis (MANCOVA) and further with discriminant analysis. The relationship between the length of hospital stay and quality of life was assessed with MANCOVA. Results and conclusions: The symptoms reported in the three-months follow-up were associated with lowered quality of life in the six-months follow-up. There were no significant differences in quality of life between the patient groups. The length of hospital stay was not associated with quality of life in ICU and ward groups. These results support previous studies that have found prolonging symptoms of COVID-19 to be associated with quality of life. According to this study, all patient groups can experience clinically significant prolonging symptoms of COVID-19 alike with later association with quality of life.

Objectives: Mental health problems as well as chronic stress and worries have been shown to have an established connection to sleep quality, but the individual effects of acute, stressful situations encountered in everyday life have received less attention. Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep has a hypothesized role in the processing of emotional memories and may therefore be affected by daytime acute stress. In experimental animal models and non-experimental human studies on healthy subjects acute stress has been associated with increases in REM sleep spectral power in the theta and beta ranges. The aim of this study was to investigate in an experimental setting utilizing virtual reality, whether an acute stress experience influences REM spectral power at these frequency ranges. Methods: Two groups of healthy young adults (N=31, 61 % female, mean age 25.5 years, SD = 3.46) underwent stress inducing or neutral virtual reality scenarios after which they spent the night at a sleep laboratory where their brain activity during sleep was measured with electroencephalography (EEG). To analyse the differences in theta and beta frequency activity during REM sleep, the EEG signal was Fourier transformed to yield power spectral density (PSD) values. Results: Statistical analysis of PSD values revealed that participants in the stress condition exhibited higher REM sleep theta power than controls when controlling for the effects of sex and age. Additionally, sex was found to have a statistically significant effect on REM sleep theta and beta power, with females exhibiting higher power. Age had a negative relationship with spectral power at the theta range, as well as with central low and high beta power. Conclusions: The finding that experimentally manipulated acute stress increases REM sleep theta power during the following night indicates the importance of REM sleep theta activity in the adaptive processing of acute stress, possibly due to the emotional processing of the stressful memory. This study also underlines the importance of sex and age in understanding the relationship between acute stress and REM sleep.

Objective. The FRIENDS programme is a group cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) programme, developed for the prevention and treatment of child and adolescent anxiety and depression. In the context of prevention, FRIENDS has been extensively researched; however, little research has been conducted on FRIENDS in a treatment setting and with different populations. To help fill this gap, the aim of the present study was to evaluate the effectiveness of the Finnish version of FRIENDS in reducing internalising symptoms in children diagnosed with psychiatric and neuropsychiatric disorders. Methods. The present study was conducted at Helsinki University Hospital (HUS) Child Psychiatry outpatient clinics in the Helsinki metropolitan area, Finland. The participating children (n = 99, mean age = 9.45 years, range 6–13 years, 68.7 % boys) were randomly assigned to either FRIENDS (n = 52) or a waitlist control group (n = 47), which received treatment as usual for a period of 3 months before the intervention. The children’s internalising symptoms were assessed using parent- and teacher-report questionnaires (Child Behavior Checklist and Teacher’s Report Form) at referral to treatment, pre-treatment, post-treatment, and six-month follow-up. Results and conclusions. In both groups, there was a medium-sized statistically significant decrease in parent-reported internalising symptoms immediately after the intervention; however, these improvements were not retained at six-month follow-up. Teacher-reported internalising symptoms followed a similar pattern of decrease during the intervention and increase during follow-up; however, these changes were smaller in magnitude and did not reach statistical significance, possibly due to loss of statistical power caused by missing data. Neither parent- or teacher-reports showed an intervention effect, with children’s internalising symptoms exhibiting similar changes regardless of whether they belonged to the intervention group or the waitlist control group, which received treatment as usual during the wait period. These results raise questions on the durability of treatment effects and the superiority of FRIENDS over active waitlist control conditions or treatment as usual when treating children diagnosed with diverse psychiatric and neuropsychiatric disorders in a community setting where treatment adherence and integrity may not be ideal.

Objectives – Neonatal hyperbilirubinemia (HB), also referred to as neonatal jaundice, can alter child’s neurodevelopment, and thus significantly increase infant’s risk for severe neurological disability. Although the majority of neonatal HB cases benign, there are several cases where bilirubin levels grow alarmingly and remain elevated, eventually causing permanent physical harm and frequently altering the development of central nervous system. Research on the long-term effects of HB has been lacking: the follow-ups have been relative short, and there are not many studies focusing on how neonatal HB might influence neurocognition in later adulthood (> 30 year of age). The aim of this study is to further investigate the association between neonatal HB and later cognitive performance in adulthood by using data from over 40-year-long Finnish follow-up study. Methods – In a longitudinal prospective study, data were collected from 125 subject who had experienced neonatal HB and from 77 controls. Cognitive performance was assessed at age of 40 by using various previously validated methods designed to assess executive function and attention, memory, verbal functions, and visuo-perceptual functions. Four factors were formed for neuropsychological variables: Cognitive flexibility, Visual memory and perception, Verbal memory, and Reading. In addition, all subjects had performed WAIS-IV assessments. Data from these assessments were used to create four new factors – Verbal comprehension, Working Memory, Perceptual Reasoning, and Processing Speed – reflecting different cognitive areas. Also, Full-Scale Intelligence Quotient (FSIQ) was included. Linear regression analyses were used to assess the relation between HB-classification and neuropsychological variables. Differences between the groups were further studied by pair-wise comparisons using t-test, after which Mann–Whitney-U test was used to take into account moderate to highly skewed distributions of the variables. Effects of different HB levels on later neurocognition was studied by using linear regression, where sex, mother’s age at birth, and mother’s education level were controlled. Results – Neonatal HB was associated with slower performance in Cognitive Flexibility, and with lower performance in Perceptual Reasoning and in FSIQ. Highest measured neonatal bilirubin levels within HB group had a linear effect on Verbal Comprehension at age of 40; however, the effect was not found in other cognitive domains. Conclusions – Neonatal HB has effect on performance in FSIQ at age of 40 years. In addition, it was associated with both poorer Perceptual Reasoning and slower Cognitive Flexibility. Results might be due to perceptual reasoning’s high vulnerability to neuronal damage and to difficulty of compensating perceptual biological limitations with learning. Since the measured neonatal bilirubin levels within HB group was associated only with lower performance in Verbal Reasoning in this study, it could be concluded that after reaching the inclusion criteria the excess level of bilirubin was no longer significant influence on severity of the outcome.

Objectives. Formal musical training has shown promising effects on auditory discrimination in children, but it is not within reach of every family as it is time-consuming and costly. This study aimed to determine whether at-home musical intervention and activities enhance neural auditory speech sound discrimination accuracy in children with or without a familial dyslexia risk. Methods. A follow-up sample of 113 children with or without risk of dyslexia participated. During the first six months of infancy, 57 of the children with a familial risk participated in at-home music listening intervention, including vocal or instrumental music. Musical activities at home were assessed with a questionnaire at 24 months of age. Speech sound discrimination accuracy was assessed at 28 months, with change-elicited responses derived from EEG. Linear mixed-effects (LME) models were applied to study the association between neural responses and musical enrichment. Results. The LME models showed that the association between speech sound discrimination accuracy and musical activities differed between the groups. In post-hoc comparisons, this association differed between the vocal intervention group and the other risk groups. The group without the familial risk did not differ from the risk groups. Conclusions. The observed bidirectional associations of musical activities and vocal listening intervention with change-related cortical processing potentially reflect two separate mechanisms of neural maturation and compensatory activation. Hence, vocal intervention and musical activities might promote specific aspects of auditory neural development. Understanding these associations is relevant in both guiding future research and in preventing language disorders.

The aim of the study. Subjective time perception is prone to distortions, and one of the factors affecting it is a person's emotional state. Anticipation of unpleasant and threatening situations is of particular importance for coping. Previous research on the relationship between anticipation of unpleasant situations and perceived duration has shown conflicting results. Moreover, the experimental designs have been inadequate. The present study examines the effect of anticipating an unpleasant image and individual anxiety tendency on duration perception. The results are discussed in relation to the attentional gate model, which suggests that the influence of emotionality on perceived duration may be mediated through arousal or attentional allocation. Methods. Subjects (n=39) completed a temporal discrimination task in which the duration of a neutral visual cue stimulus was compared to previously learned short and long comparison durations. The colour of the stimulus indicated whether or not it was followed by an unpleasant image. The experiment consisted of three experimental conditions: (1) an unpleasant image was not anticipated nor presented, (2) an unpleasant image was anticipated but not presented, and (3) an unpleasant image was anticipated and presented. Psychometric functions were generated from the responses to obtain the points of subjective equality. The point refers to a duration that the person cannot distinguish as short or long. The effect of anticipating an unpleasant image and individual self-reported anxiety tendency on the points of subjective equality was analysed using multilevel linear modelling. Results. Anticipation of an unpleasant image led to longer perceived duration. Those reporting more anxiety perceived the duration of the cue stimulus to be longer than those reporting less anxiety. However, anxiety tendency did not moderate the effect of unpleasant image anticipation on perceived duration. Conclusions. Interpreted according to the attentional gate model, the perception of time passing slower is explained by arousal induced by the anticipation of an unpleasant situation, which speeds up the internal clock. In addition, anxious individuals are more aroused during anticipation, which is why they perceive time to pass more slowly than others. The role of attention in the relationship between anticipation of an unpleasant situation and duration perception seems to be more pronounced in situations where the threat is more biologically significant.

Aim. Measuring depression is often based on calculating sum scores of symptoms in which case the effectiveness of treatment is evaluated on the basis of the change in the sum scores. However, as a result of calculating the sum scores, data about symptoms is lost. Despite the mitigation of depression symptoms, functional deficiencies are common and therefore psychosocial functioning should also be measured when evaluating the effectiveness of treatment. The aim of this study is to determine whether individual depressive symptoms, regardless of diagnosis, predict the observed change in psychoso-cial function, while simultaneously considering the effect of total depression scores. In addition, it was sought to deter-mine whether individual changes in symptoms predict a change in psychosocial function when comparing subjects with a clinically significant improvement in psychosocial function with those with less change. Methodology. The data of the study (n = 214) comes from the psychotherapy quality-control register of HUS Psychiatry, where data collection is integrated into the psychotherapy process. The effects of changes in symptoms and depression sum scores on psychosocial functioning were studied using linear regression models and MIMIC-models. The clinical significance of changes in psychosocial functioning was predicted by logistic regression analyzes. Results and Conclusions. In regression models describing the association between symptom changes and psychosocial functioning, age, gender, diagnosis, or psychotherapy were not significant predictors. The connection of symptomatic changes with the observed change in psychosocial functioning did not depend on whether the person was diagnosed with depression or some other mental disorder. Of the depressive symptoms, only self-dissatisfaction or experiences of failure was associated with a change in psychosocial function (beta = -0.25, p-value = .003), while simultaneously taking into account the change in overall depression. Based on the results, self-dissatisfaction can predict a change in psychosocial function regardless of overall depression, which is why self-reported dissatisfaction appears to be an important symptom predictive of the effectiveness of short-term psychotherapy in general psychiatric patients.

Objectives: Subjective perception and estimates of elapsed time are sensitive to fluctuation in emotional state. Studies have shown that anticipating a threat such as electric shock and loud noise lengthens subjectively perceived duration of time. Although the effects of anticipating unpleasant stimuli on time perception have been studied quite extensively, it remains unclear whether anticipating an appealing emotional event distort subjective time. The aim of the current study was to examine whether anticipating of an erotic picture result in overestimation of subjectively perceived duration of time. In addition, it was examined whether the level of sexual arousal reported by the participants was associated with the extent of temporal distortion. Methods: The participants completed a temporal bisection task, during which they estimated durations of visual probes relative to previously learned long and short standard durations. The color of the probe indicated whether a possibly erotic picture was later presented. Because the picture was not always followed, three experimental conditions were used: 1) a condition where the erotic picture was anticipated and presented at the end of the estimated time interval; 2) the picture was anticipated but a blank screen was shown; and 3) where a blank screen was anticipated and presented. Conclusion: The cue durations were found to be overestimated due to anticipation of erotic picture. Moreover, participants who rated the pictures as more arousing showed a stronger temporal overestimation effect than participants who reported images as less arousing. The results support the pacemaker-accumulator model, according to which the number of pulses sent by the pacemaker provides a basis for estimating time, and the more pulses the pacemaker sends to the accumulator, the longer the duration is judged to be.

Tavoite: Toiminnanohjaus vastaa kognition ja käyttäytymisen koordinoinnista arjen tilanteissa ja on siten keskeinen päivittäisistä haasteista selviämiseksi. Tutkimuksia COVID-19-infektion yhteyksistä toiminnanohjaukseen ja erityisesti sen arkielämän ilmiasuihin on toistaiseksi vähän. Tämän tutkielman tarkoituksena on tutkia Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF-A) -mittarilla arvioitua arjen toiminnanohjausta 3 ja 6 kuukautta COVID-19-infektion akuuttivaiheen jälkeen. Tavoitteena on selvittää yhteyksiä akuuttivaiheen edellyttämään hoidon tasoon (tehohoito, tavallinen vuodeosasto, ei sairaalahoitoa) ja ajallisia muutoksia 3:sta 6:teen kuukauteen. Lisätavoitteena on selvittää, miten itsearvio on yhteydessä läheisen arvioon tilanteesta. Menetelmät: Tämä tutkimus on osa RECOVID-20-tutkimusprojektia. Otokseen (n = 154) kuului 111 COVID-19-potilasta, joiden akuuttivaiheen edellyttämä hoito erosi (tehohoito n = 42, tavallinen vuodeosasto n = 40, ei sairaalahoitoa n = 29), sekä 43 tervettä verrokkia. Mittarina käytettiin BRIEF-A-kyselyä, jonka osallistujat ja heidän läheisensä täyttivät 3 ja 6 kuukautta akuuttivaiheen jälkeen (kontrolliryhmä kerran). Potilaiden ja verrokkien sekä hoitoryhmien välisiä eroja BRIEF-A:n itsearvion summapistemäärässä (GEC) 3 ja 6 kuukauden kohdalla tarkasteltiin yleistetyillä lineaarisilla malleilla. Ajallisia muutoksia itsearvion summapistemäärässä, itsearvion ja läheisen arvion eroa, sekä näiden yhteyksiä hoidon tasoon tutkittiin yleistetyillä sekamalleilla. Ikä, sukupuoli ja koulutustaso kontrolloitiin kaikissa analyyseissa. Tulokset ja johtopäätökset: Tämä tutkimus on tiettävästi yksi ensimmäisistä arjen toiminnanohjauksen ja COVID-19-infektion yhteyksiin keskittyvistä tutkimuksista. Keskeiset tulokset viittaavat siihen, että arjen toiminnanohjauksen ongelmat eivät lisäänny COVID-19-infektion jälkeen. On kuitenkin huomattava, että yksilöllinen vaihtelu oli suurta, eli osa toipuvista potilaista saattaa olla alttiimpia kokemaan toiminnanohjauksen ongelmia arjessaan. Keskimäärin arjen toiminnanohjauksen tila ei näyttänyt muuttuvan merkittävästi 3 ja 6 kuukauden mittauksien välillä, mutta muutoksen suunta vaihteli akuuttivaiheen hoidon tason mukaan. Tehohoidossa olleilla potilailla itsearvioidut ongelmat näyttivät keskimäärin lisääntyvän hieman, kun taas muilla potilailla muutos oli laskeva. Lisäksi havaittiin, että osallistujat raportoivat keskimäärin enemmän ongelmia kuin heidän läheisensä. Yllättäen ero oli pienin tehohoidossa hoidetuilla potilailla, mikä saattaa johtua lisääntyneestä tarkkailusta vakavan lähipiirissä ilmenneen sairauden jälkeen. Kokonaisuudessaan tämän tutkimuksen tulokset viittaavat alustavasti arjen toiminnanohjauksen erillisyyteen muista kognition ja toiminnanohjauksen osa-alueista.

Objectives Autism generally refers to lingual, communicational and behavioral continuous traits, which are determined by genetics as well as environment. The purpose of this study was to examine to which extent the genetic autism risk explains the variation in autistic traits in two-year-old children in the normal population. Additionally the impact of the genetic autism risk was examined in conditions, where the mother of the child suffered from depressive symptoms during pregnancy and/or had alexithymia (trouble identifying feelings). Methods The sample was collected from the Child-Sleep cohort study (n=942). The child’s genetic autism risk was calculated by comparing the child’s genome with the genome of people with an autism diagnosis. All of the other information was collected with questionnaires. The child’s autistic traits were assessed according to the autism scale in BITSEA. The mother’s depressive symptoms during pregnancy were assessed according to the Ces-d (short) questionnaire and her trouble identifying feelings according to the TAS-20-questionnaire. The connections between the variables were examined with Pearson’s correlation coefficient. The autistic traits were examined with linear regression analysis. Results and conclusions The genetic autism risk explained 2% of the variation in the autistic traits of two-year-old children in the normal population. This result is in line with previous studies. Gender (autistic traits were more prevalent in males), maternal adolescence and the degree of maternal alexithymia were the best predictors of an autistic phenotype. Generally maternal maturity is considered a risk factor for the child’s more autistic phenotype, whereas our result possibly points out that the risk is rather created by paternal maturity instead. In addition of identifying the greatest risk factors, interactions between the genetic risk of autism and the psychological factors of the mother (depressive symptoms during pregnancy and trouble identifying emotions) were examined. However, these interactions were not statistically significant in this study. The impact of genes is already a verified fact – the next goal is to identify environments, where the genes interact, creating a more autistic phenotype.