Browsing by master's degree program "Psykologian maisteriohjelma"
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(2024)Tutkimuksen tavoite: Fonologinen tietoisuus ja erityisesti sen osa-alue äännetietoisuus on yksi vahvimmin lukemaan oppimista sekä lukemisen vaikeuksia ennustavista tekijöistä. Fonologisen tietoisuuden harjoittelun on todettu kehittävän tehokkaasti lukemisen ja kirjoittamisen taitoja. Tämän tutkimuksen tavoitteena on selvittää äännetietoisuuden intervention vaikuttavuutta fonologisen tietoisuuden ja lukitaitojen vahvistamisessa suomenkielisillä 3.-5. -luokkalaisilla lapsilla, joilla on ollut vaikeuksia lukemaan oppimisessa. Lisäksi tutkimuksen tavoitteena on tarkentaa kuvaa siitä, miten äännetietoisuuden taidot kehittyvät harjoituksen myötä jo lukemaan oppineilla lapsilla, sekä selvittää, miten kognitiiviset taidot (fonologinen tietoisuus, fonologinen lyhytkestoinen muisti, työmuisti ja yleinen älykkyys) ennustavat oppimista. Tulokset ja johtopäätökset: Tutkimukseen osallistui 34 lasta, jotka satunnaistettiin interventioryhmään (n = 29) ja kontrolliryhmään (n = 14). Fonologinen tietoisuus kehittyi merkitsevästi enemmän äännetietoisuuden interventioryhmässä kuin kontrolliryhmässä (f = 0.35). Sen sijaan lukusujuvuuden, lukutarkkuuden tai oikeinkirjoituksen kehittymisessä ei ollut merkitsevää eroa ryhmien välillä. Tämä osoittaa äännetietoisuuden intervention olevan tehokas fonologisen tietoisuuden vahvistamisessa lapsilla, joilla on ollut vaikeuksia lukemaan oppimisessa. Kapea-alaisesti äännetietoisuuteen keskittyvä interventio ei kehittänyt merkitsevästi lukitaitoja, mutta interventio voisi olla lupaava myös lukitaitojen vahvistamisessa esimerkiksi yhdistettynä laaja-alaisempaan lukitaitojen harjoitteluun. Tämän tutkimuksen perusteella yksilölliseen taitotasoon mukautuva monimutkaisten äännetietoisuustaitojen harjoittelu vaikuttaa soveltuvan hyvin jo lukemaan oppineille lapsille. Äännetietoisuuden taitojen oppiminen eteni useimmilla lapsilla odotetussa järjestyksessä, mutta oppimisen nopeudessa oli huomattavaa yksilöllistä vaihtelua. Nopeampaa äännetietoisuuden oppimista ennustivat merkitsevästi fonologinen tietoisuus ja fonologinen lyhytkestoinen muisti. Siten lapset, joilla nämä taidot ovat vahvat, hyötyvät todennäköisesti enemmän tämänkaltaisesta interventiosta, kun taas taidoiltaan heikommat lapset saattavat tarvita intensiivisempää ja monipuolisempaa harjoittelua oppiakseen samat taidot. Tulevaisuudessa olisi tärkeää tutkia intervention vaikuttavuutta tarkemmin esimerkiksi lapsilla, joilla on todettu lukivaikeus tai selviä fonologisia vaikeuksia lukivaikeuden taustalla, sekä käyttää vertailuryhmänä aktiivista kontrolliryhmää.
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(2021)Aims: The aim of this study was to test the feasibility of a new phonemic awareness test to study children who have potential problems in their reading skills. The children were second graders whose reading skills either had or had not caused worry at home or school. The phonemic awareness test was developed for investigating and providing intervention on phonemic awareness. This new method includes ten different ways to change phonemes in a word. We determined if some of these phonemic changes are better at separating the groups from each other and whether there are differences between the tasks in the degree of difficulty. In addition, the children were also tested with standardized neuropsychological tests that measure reading-related skills. The study was done completely remotely and one of its aims was also to get additional information on feasibility of neuropsychological testing in remote environments. Methods: 16 participants took part in the study. Eight of them were children whose reading skills had caused worry and other eight whose reading skills had not caused such worry. The study was done remotely using Zoom and the experiment took about 1-1,5 hours depending on how quickly the child completed the tasks. There were 11 tasks altogether, which assessed the child’s reading and writing skills and skills that can affect these, such as phonological skills, working memory and rapid naming. Results: The groups differed from each other almost in every standardized test and also in the new phonemic awareness test. In the new phonemic awareness test children who had caused worry on their reading skills got less points in every part, but the groups differed statistically significantly in five of them only. These five included changing the beginning or the ending of the word, diphthong, diphthong to long vowel and changing a vowel to a consonant. The degree of difficulty varied between the subtests of the phonemic awareness task, the pattern of performance being comparable in the two groups. Detecting differences between word beginnings and syllables was the easiest and detecting diphthong and vowel to consonant or consonant to vowel changes were the most difficult. These results are promising, suggesting that the phonemic awareness test could serve to identify problems in phonemic awareness in children whose reading skills are suspected to be poor. This study also suggested the feasibility of carrying out neuropsychological tests remotely.
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(2023)Tavoitteet: COVID-19-tautiin voi liittyä heikentynyttä mielenterveyttä. Yli vuoden seuranta-ajan tutkimuksia COVID-taudista on vielä vähän, sillä pandemian alusta on kulunut vasta kolme vuotta. Näin ollen tietoa muun muassa ahdistusoireilun ja post-traumaattisen stressioireilun ilmenemisestä ja niiden jatkuvuudesta 24 kuukautta taudin akuuttivaiheen jälkeen ei juuri ole. Tämän tutkimuksen tavoitteena on tutkia, eroavatko COVID-19-potilaat verrokeista ahdistusoireilun ja post-traumaattisen oireilun määrässä, onko taudin vaikeusaste yhteydessä oireiluun ja onko oireilun määrässä tapahtunut muutosta potilasaineistossa 24 kuukauden seurannassa. Menetelmät: Tutkimus on osa Recovid-20-tutkimushanketta. Tämän osatutkimuksen aineistoon kuului 136 henkilöä; COVID-19-potilaita taudin eri vaikeusasteita edustavista ryhmistä (n=103) ja verrokit (n = 33) Ahdistusoireilua arvioitiin GAD-7-menetelmällä ja post-traumaattista stressioireilua IES-6-kyselyllä. Ryhmien välisiä eroja tutkittiin logistisen regressioanalyysin avulla ja mittauspisteiden välillä tapahtunutta muutosta tutkittiin toistettujen mittausten varianssianalyysilla. Muutosta tutkittaessa tutkittavia oli 92, joista kaikki olivat COVID-19-potilaita. Tulokset: 24 kuukauden seurannassa ahdistusoireilulla ja COVID-19-taudin sairastamisella ei havaittu yhteyttä, eikä eroa taudin eri vaikeusasteiden välillä ilmennyt. Ahdistusoireilu pysyi samalla matalalla tasolla 24 kuukauden seurannassa. Sen sijaan 24 kuukauden kohdalla havaittu post-traumaattinen stressioireilu oli yhteydessä sairastettuun COVID-19-tautiin ja sen eri vaikeusasteisiin. Post-traumaattinen stressioireilu väheni merkitsevästi verrattaessa kolmen ja 24 kuukauden mittauspisteitä toisiinsa. Johtopäätökset: Sairastetun COVID-19-taudin ja post-traumaattisen stressioireilun yhteys on tärkeää huomioida COVID-19-potilaita arvioitaessa silloinkin, kun taudin sairastamisesta on jo kulunut aikaa. Tutkimusta tarvitaan lisää esimerkiksi ahdistuksen ja post-traumaattisen oireilun mahdollisista yhdysvaikutuksista toisiinsa COVID-19-taudin yhteydessä.
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(2020)Objectives. Anxiety causes significant suffering in different life domains, and its prevalence rates are high already in childhood and adolescence. Often symptoms develop into a disorder which is why identifying factors associated with anxiety is important. Anxiety disorders run in families but only few studies have examined the association between maternal and child anxiety on a symptom level. It’s possible that this association is mediated by parenting competence but, as far as is known, this has never been studied. The aim of this study was to examine the associations of maternal anxiety with child anxiety and fears both cross-sectionally and longitudinally. It was also examined whether this association is mediated by parenting competence. Methods. The sample of this study was part of the Finnish Prediction and Prevention of Preeclampsia and Intrauterine Growth Restriction (PREDO) cohort. The sample consisted of 992 mothers who evaluated their own anxiety symptoms (Beck Anxiety Inventory) first when children were 2–5 years old and again when they were 7–11 years old. In the latter follow-up mothers also evaluated their parenting competence (Parenting Sense of Competence) as well as children’s anxiety (Spence Children’s Anxiety Scale for Parents) and fears (The Short Form of the Fear Survey Schedule for Children – Revised). The association of maternal anxiety with child anxiety and fears was examined with linear regression analysis. The mediating effect of parenting competence was examined with mediation analysis. Results and conclusions. Child anxiety and fears were associated with both current and previous maternal anxiety. Children of more anxious mothers showed more anxiety and fear-related symptoms and the association with mother’s former symptoms was as strong as with mother’s current symptoms. The associations of maternal anxiety with children’s later anxiety and fears were partially mediated by parenting competence. These results support previous findings that even low maternal anxiety is associated with child development and elaborates them by showing that it is associated specifically with child anxiety and fear-related symptoms. The current findings also extend existing knowledge about this association by showing that it is partially mediated by parenting competence. These findings can be utilized in prevention and treatment of childhood anxiety.
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(2023)Objective: Parent–infant therapeutic work is an intensive intervention, individually tailored for families with an infant to support the parent–infant relationship. It is offered when support provided by maternity and child health clinics and other basic services is not enough. Maternal mentalization and emotion regulation are thought to be the underlying mechanisms of the intervention’s potential effectiveness. There are many similarities in the development of mentalization and emotion regulation as well as in their importance to parenting. Theoretically it has been thought that the association between them is bidirectional and mutually reinforcing. This study investigates whether maternal mentalization and emotion regulation change during parent–infant therapeutic work. In addition, the association between mentalization and emotion regulation is investigated with both cross-sectional and longitudinal research designs. Methods: The study sample was part of a larger effectiveness study of services offered to families with infants in finnish family centers. The sample consisted of 90 mothers receiving parent–infant therapeutic work. Emotion regulation was assessed using the Difficulties in Emotion Regulation Scale Short Form (DERS-SF) questionnaire. Maternal mentalizing was assessed in a subsample of 31 mothers, using either the Pregnancy Interview (PI) or the Parent Development Interview Revised (PDI-R), depending on whether the measurement was made during pregnancy or after childbirth. Changes in emotion regulation and mentalization during the intervention as well as the relationship between the changes were evaluated using linear mixed models. The association between mentalization and emotion regulation at baseline was evaluated using linear regression analysis. Results and conclusions: One of the DERS-SF subscales, access to emotion regulation strategies, improved during treatment. In addition, maternal mentalizing improved in mothers with low baseline mentalizing capacity. This result supports the previously observed phenomenon that it may be easier to increase low mentalization ability than high mentalization ability. It is possible that in order to improve emotion regulation and mentalizing more broadly, the intervention should include more systematic support of emotion regulation and mentalization. This study also confirmed previous, albeit conflicting evidence that maternal mentalizing and emotion regulation are not unequivocally associated. More research is needed on the effectiveness of parent–infant therapeutic work and the association between parental mentalizing and emotional regulation using different research methods and designs.
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Äidin perinataalimasennusoireilun yhteys kouluikäisen lapsen ADHD-oireisiin ja toiminnanohjaukseen (2021)Äidin perinataalimasennuksen eli raskaudenaikaisen ja synnytyksen jälkeisen masennuksen on todettu olevan yhteydessä moniin lapsen kasvun ja kehityksen ongelmiin. Aiemmissa tutkimuksissa on löydetty äidin perinataalimasennusoireilun yhteys lapsen ADHD-oireisiin ja heikompaan toiminnanohjaukseen. Aihetta on kuitenkin tutkittu toistaiseksi melko vähän, ja ADHD-oireita käsitelleiden tutkimusten kohteina ovat olleet pääasiassa alle kouluikäiset lapset. Tämän tutkimuksen tavoitteena on selvittää, onko äidin perinataalimasennusoireilu yhteydessä kouluikäisen lapsen ADHD-oireisiin ja toiminnanohjaukseen. Tutkimuksessa selvitetään lisäksi, vaikuttaako sukupuoli äidin perinataalimasennusoireilun ja kouluikäisen lapsen ADHD-oireiden väliseen yhteyteen sekä äidin perinataalimasennusoireilun ja lapsen toiminnanohjauksen väliseen yhteyteen. Tutkimukseen osallistui 2 002 äiti-lapsiparia, jotka kuuluivat suomalaiseen The Prediction and Prevention of Pre‐eclampsia and Intrauterine Growth Restriction (PREDO) -kohorttitutkimukseen. Äidit vastasivat masennusoirekyselyyn 14 kertaa raskausaikana alkaen raskausviikolla 120/7–136/7 ja päättyen raskausviikolle 380/7–396/7 tai synnytykseen sekä kaksi viikkoa ja kuusi kuukautta synnytyksen jälkeen. Äidit arvioivat lastensa ADHD-oireita sekä ADHD Rating Scale että Conners’ 10-item Scale -kyselylomakkeilla ja toiminnanohjausta Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function (BRIEF) -kyselylomakkeella. Äidin perinataalimasennusoireilun yhteyttä lapsen ADHD-oireisiin ja toiminnanohjaukseen tutkittiin lineaarisella regressioanalyysillä, jossa huomioitiin useita äitiin ja lapseen liittyviä taustamuuttujia. Sukupuolen vaikutusta äidin perinataalimasennusoireilun ja lapsen ADHD-oireiden sekä äidin perinataalimasennusoireilun ja lapsen toiminnanohjauksen välisiin yhteyksiin tutkittiin moderaatioanalyysillä. Lineaarisella regressioanalyysillä tutkittiin, onko sukupuolen ja äidin perinataalimasennuksen välillä yhdysvaikutusta ennustettaessa lapsen ADHD-oireita ja toiminnanohjausta. Tutkimuksen tuloksista ilmeni, että äidin masennusoireilu sekä raskausaikana että synnytyksen jälkeen oli yhteydessä lapsen voimakkaampiin ADHD-oireisiin ja heikompaan toiminnanohjaukseen. Tulosten perusteella lapsen sukupuoli moderoi äidin ensimmäisen raskauskolmanneksen masennusoireilun ja kouluikäisen lapsen yliaktiivisuus-impulsiivisuusoireiden välistä yhteyttä. Sukupuoli ei kuitenkaan moderoinut muita äidin perinataalimasennusoireilun ja lapsen ADHD-oireiden välillä löytyneitä yhteyksiä eikä vaikuttanut äidin perinataalimasennusoireilun ja lapsen toiminnanohjauksen väliseen yhteyteen. Tutkimus lisäsi tietoa siitä, kuinka äidin masennusoireilu jokaisena raskauskolmanneksena ja synnytyksen jälkeen on yhteydessä kouluikäisen lapsen voimakkaampiin ADHD-oireisiin ja heikompaan toiminnanohjaukseen. Tässä tutkimuksessa sukupuoli moderoi äidin ensimmäisen raskauskolmanneksen masennusoireilun ja kouluikäisen lapsen yliaktiivisuus-impulsiivisuusoireiden välistä yhteyttä, mutta kyseessä saattaa olla satunnainen löydös. Sukupuolen mahdollisesta vaikutuksesta äidin perinataalimasennusoireilun ja lapsen ADHD-oireiden väliseen yhteyteen tarvitaan lisää tutkimuksia.
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(2022)Objectives: Fetal exposure to excess cortisol may negatively affect the mental development of a child later in life. Consumption of licorice, containing glycyrrhizin (a potent inhibitor of placental 11β- hydroxysteroid dehydrogenase type 2, the “barrier” to maternal glucocorticoids), increases the cortisol level in fetal circulation. Therefore, since 2016, the national nutritional recommendations in Finland have recommended avoiding licorice consumption during pregnancy. The aim of this study is to assess the association between glycyrrhizin consumption in different stages of pregnancy and child neurocognitive development in early childhood. In earlier research, child neurodevelopment has not been studied before school age. Methods: The sample of the study is a part of the ITU (InTraUterine sampling in early pregnancy) cohort. Mothers reported their glycyrrhizin consumption from the preceding three months three times during pregnancy. The child’s neurocognitive development was assessed with Ages and Stages Questionnaires -3 (ASQ-3) at 1–2 years (mean age = 1.55 years, standard deviation (SD) = 1.44 months, n = 516, 47.50 % girls) and with Bayley Scales of Infant and Toddler Development III (BSID-III) at 3 years (mean = 2.96 years, SD = 2.69 months, n = 476, 50.40 % girls). The association between licorice consumption and neurocognitive development was assessed using linear, logistic, and Poisson regression models. Results and conclusions: Maternal glycyrrhizin consumption and child neurocognitive development were negatively associated at 1–2 and 3 years. The results varied between areas of development and the time of pregnancy: consumption during early pregnancy was associated with slower gross motor development at 3 years, mid-pregnancy consumption with slower cognitive and language development at 3 years, and late pregnancy with slower total neurodevelopment scores at 1–2 years. Thus, avoiding licorice consumption through pregnancy and following the national guidelines that followed the previous studies on this subject is recommended.
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(2021)The aim of the study. Maternal depression during pregnancy occurs in up to one in four women. It is a serious condition that can have long-term negative effects on the development of the foetus and the child through a harmful intrauterine environment. Maternal depression during pregnancy is for instance associated with internalizing mental health symptoms and temperament in children. However, there is little research evidence on the association of maternal depression during pregnancy with anxiety symptoms in school-aged children. Childhood anxiety symptoms can have serious and long-term consequences for an individual in terms of psychosocial, academic and professional functioning. This study examines whether maternal depressive symptoms during pregnancy increases the risk of anxiety symptoms in school-age children. I also investigate whether infant negative emotionality mediates the association between maternal depression symptoms during pregnancy and anxiety symptoms in school-age children. Methods. The sample of this study, which consists of 1625 mother-child pairs, was part of a larger PREDO (The Prediction and Prevention of Preeclampsia and Intrauterine Growth Restriction) follow-up study. Data from 3-12 months infancy follow-up and follow-up at the age of 7 to 11 years were used in this study. Mothers rated depressive symptoms during pregnancy using a self-assessment questionnaire (Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale). Mothers assessed their children's negative emotionality (Revised Infant Behavior Questionnaire) in the infant follow-up and their children's anxiety symptoms (Spence Children's Anxiety Scale, parent report version & The Short Form of the Fear Survey Schedule for Children-Revised) in the school-age follow-up. The associations between maternal depressive symptoms during pregnancy and anxiety symptoms in school-age children were examined with linear regression analysis. Negative emotionality in infancy as a mediator of this relationship was examined with mediation analysis. Results and conclusions. According to this study, maternal depressive symptoms during pregnancy increased the risk of anxiety symptoms in school-age children. The observed associations between maternal depressive symptoms and anxiety symptoms in children were independent of all the covariates selected for this study, such as maternal depression symptoms during follow-up at the age of 7 to 11. Preliminary research findings were also obtained on negative emotionality in infancy as partly mediating the association between maternal depressive symptoms during pregnancy and anxiety symptoms in school-age children. This study helps to increase understanding of the early risk factors of anxiety symptoms in children and the importance of preventive measures during pregnancy. High negative emotionality in early childhood is also a justified target for interventions.
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(2019)Aims of the study. Mental disorders and their intergenerational nature are significant global health problems. Research shows that prenatal and postnatal exposure to maternal affective disorders increases the risk of mental disorders in children. A more precise understanding of the timing of maternal affective disorders in predicting the risk of child psychopathology is needed. This study examined whether maternal affective disorders before, during, and after pregnancy are associated with the risk of mental disorders in children up to the age of 7–11 years. Timing of maternal affective disorders, i.e. the sensitive periods, and additive effects of maternal affective disorders were also assessed. Methods. The study sample is a part of an ongoing prospective PREDO-study. The sample (N = 4692) comprised mother-child-pairs whose hospital records documenting mental disorders was available. The associations between maternal affective disorders and any mental disorder, disorders of psychological development, and behavioural and emotional disorders in the offspring were analyzed using Cox regression models, controlling for sociodemographic factors and maternal substance use disorders. Timing of maternal affective disorders was assessed by comparing the observed risks, i.e. hazard ratios, of the different time periods. Results and conclusions. Maternal affective disorders during every time period predicted increased risks of offspring mental disorders. Maternal affective disorders before and after pregnancy associated with the risk of any mental disorder, disorders of psychological development, and behavioural and emotional disorders. Maternal prenatal affective disorders were associated with increased risks of any mental disorders and disorders of psychological development. Timing of maternal affective disorders did not appear to be crucial, but maternal affective disorders at different timepoints had additive effects on child mental disorders. Findings suggest that maternal affective disorders predict mental disorders in young children. Preventive interventions for women planning for pregnancy, during pregnancy, and for families with young children may prevent mental disorders in both the mother and the child.
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(2023)Background: Parenting stress, romantic relationship satisfaction and their associations have been studied extensively, mostly with cross-sectional studies and in different clinical groups. However, parents of young children in non-clinical groups are less studied, especially with longitudinal settings. The aim of this master’s thesis is to investigate the change in maternal parenting stress over time, associations with romantic relationship satisfaction and if romantic relationship satisfaction modifies the change in parenting stress. Methods: Our sample (n = 361) is drawn from the prospective cohort study “The InTraUterine sampling in early pregnancy” (ITU). Participating mothers took part in two follow-up assessments: first at the child’s age of 1–2-years and second at 3 years. Parenting stress was assessed at the first and second follow-ups with the “Parenting Stress Index-Short Form” (PSI-SF) questionnaire with three subscales: parental distress, parent-child dysfunctional interaction and difficult child. Romantic relationship satisfaction was assessed at the first follow-up with the satisfaction subscale form the “Dyadic Adjustment Scale” (DAS) questionnaire. Data were analyzed using linear regression models and mixed models. Child’s age, sex, daycare, and siblings, as well as mother’s education and mental health disorders were controlled for in the analyses. Results: Higher parenting stress at the first follow-up was associated with higher parenting stress at the second follow-up. Higher romantic relationship satisfaction was associated with lower parenting stress at the first follow-up in all the subscales, and at the second follow-up in parental distress and difficult child subscales. Parenting stress related to difficult child’s subscale appeared to increase over time in the entire sample, but in the closer examination the changes in parenting stress were partly different in the groups of high and low romantic relationship satisfaction. Controlling for background variables did not affect the results. Conclusions: The results of this thesis fill the previous gaps in longitudinal settings and studies carried out with mothers of young children in non-clinical groups. It seems that romantic relationship satisfaction may be connected to parenting stress and its change in the early childhood. A broader understanding of these phenomena in the family context may be beneficial for applications, for example in health care, in preventing problems and promoting wellbeing of families with children.
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(2022)Backround Returning to work (RTW) is an essential part of stroke patients’ wellbeing. According to previous literature, severity of stroke is the most consistent predictor of RTW. However, the role of neuropsychological rehabilitation and cognitive deficits in the context of RTW is less clear. Closer examination of the predictors of RTW could enable the identification of stroke patients who are in a greater risk of unsuccessful RTW. Analyzing the connections between rehabilitation and RTW could help to provide better treatment. We studied whether RTW could be predicted by acute cognitive deficits, duration and different elements of neuropsychological rehabilitation. Methods Participants were 79 stroke patients (33% women) who had received outpatient neuropsychological rehabilitation. Prior to stroke, all patients had been either full or part time working or studying. Patients were neuropsychologically assessed in the acute phase. Logistic regression was used to assess variables associated with RTW. Results Of the patients, 49% had returned to work. Deficits in attention and processing speed predicted poorer likelihood to RTW. Fewer outpatient visits and more straightforward content of the rehabilitation were associated with RTW, possibly due to lesser stroke severity. Finally, most of the aspects of neuropsychological rehabilitation were associated with RTW. Conclusions According to this study, RTW of stroke patients can partly be predicted by acute cognitive performance. Results regarding attention and processing speed are in congruence with previous research. Additional research is needed to clarify the relations of cognitive performance and neurorehabilitation to RTW.
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(2024)Objective: The aim of the study was to investigate whether alexithymia and its subscales (difficulty in identifying and describing emotions and externalizing thinking) are related to exhaustion symptoms. Alexithymia reflects difficulty in identifying and describing emotions and has been found to be associated with a number of health and mental health problems. In turn, exhaustion is a problem that causes significant harm to individuals and society. This paper is the first to examine the association of alexithymia subscales with exhaustion symptoms. Methods: the study used the Young Finns Study follow-up data, from which data on alexithymia was examined in 1980 and exhaustion symptoms in the follow-up survey in 2012. The size of the sample was 1230. The research questions were explored using generalized linear gamma regression models controlling for different background variables (socioeconomic factors of adulthood and childhood family environment factors and depressive symptoms). Results: Higher alexithymia scores were found to be associated with more severe exhaustion symptoms. In addition, higher difficulties in identifying and describing emotions were associated with more intense exhaustion symptoms and higher levels of externalizing thinking were associated with lower intense exhaustion symptoms. Conclusion: Overall, alexithymic traits contribute to the intensity of exhaustion symptoms. However, controlling for depressive symptomatology weakened the association of the total alexithymia score with exhaustion symptomatology. This study raised the need to further investigate the significance of the alexithymia subscales in the future.
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(2021)Physical and social anhedonia have shown some promise as possible indicators of later mental illness, especially of depression and schizophrenia. However, previous studies have focused on college students and clinical populations, limiting their generalizability into the whole population. Most previous studies have also been cross-sectional. The aim of this longitudinal study with a general population sample is to examine whether high social or physical anhedonia in young adulthood precedes later psychiatric diagnoses. In addition, cross-sectional connections between demographic factors (sex, age, marital status, education) and social and physical anhedonia were examined. The study sample (n=453) of young adults was recruited through the Health 2000 study, which is a representative sample of the adult Finnish population. In the beginning of the study, participants filled in the self-report Chapman Revised Anhedonia Scales, and their demographic factors were clarified using a questionnaire (marital status, education level) and health records (age, sex). After this there was a follow-up period of 9 to 12 years. The psychiatric diagnoses of the participants from the follow-up period were retrieved from the Finnish Hospital Discharge Register, which includes both inpatient and outpatient specialized psychiatric care. Two sets of analyses were done: analyses of variance (ANOVA) examining the cross-sectional associations between anhedonia and demographic factors (age, sex, marital status, education) and Cox regression analyses examining longitudinal associations between aforementioned variables and later psychiatric diagnoses. Male sex was associated with both higher physical and higher social anhedonia. 63 participants (13%) received at least one psychiatric diagnosis during the follow-up period. Three diagnostic groups were examined; one for receiving a depression diagnosis, one for receiving any anxiety diagnosis and one for receiving any psychiatric diagnosis. Physical or social anhedonia during young adulthood was not found to be associated with later psychiatric diagnoses. Instead, lack of marriage/cohabitation and female sex were found to be possible risk factors for receiving a diagnosis. Contrary to the hypotheses of this study, no association between anhedonia and later psychiatric diagnoses were found. However, the relatively small amount of diagnoses during the follow-up period restricted the statistical strength of the results. The results of this study suggest that anhedonia is not a major predictor of for receiving a later depression diagnosis, any anxiety diagnosis or any psychiatric diagnosis in the general young adult population.
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(2021)Aims: Schizophrenia is characterized by cognitive impairment that associates with many problems in everyday life and functioning. Earlier research has hypothesized that antidepressant medication may associate with better cognitive functioning among schizophrenia patients, but empirical results are mixed. This study explored the profile of schizophrenia patients that use antidepressants and asked whether there is an association between antidepressant use and cognitive performance in a clinical patient sample. Because of effects on the central nervous system, benzodiazepines and anticholinergic medications were also considered. Methods: Study participants were drawn from the SUPER-Finland cohort, which was collected among patients with psychotic illnesses in 2016–2018 from all university hospital districts across Finland (n=10474). The analysis included working-age (18–70) patients with a schizophrenia diagnosis (F20) and complete results from the brief cognitive assessment (n=3411). Information about regular medications and psychosocial factors were gathered through questionnaire and interview. Cognition was assessed with CANTAB (Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery), out of which the subtests measuring reaction time (RTI) and visual learning (PAL) were included. The association of antidepressants on cognition was examined using both pooled antidepressants and various antidepressant groups as predictors in linear regression models. Gender, age, age of diagnosis, living status, relationship, education, and psychological distress were controlled in the models. Results: Over 35% of schizophrenia patients regularly used at least one antidepressant. On average, schizophrenia patients using antidepressants experienced lower well-being and more psychological distress than patients without antidepressants. The use of antidepressants was not generally associated with better or poorer cognitive performance. However, the use of SNRI antidepressants was associated with a significantly faster reaction time. The use of benzodiazepines was associated with poorer cognitive performance in both reaction time and visual learning. Conclusions: The results support the conclusion that there is generally no meaningful association between antidepressants and better cognitive performance in schizophrenia. However, the association of SNRI-medicines with a slightly faster reaction time is promising and warrants further research. Several psychosocial factors were associated with the cognitive performance of schizophrenia patients, which underlines the need for supporting psychosocial well-being in cognitive rehabilitation.
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(2021)The aim of the study. Conduct disorder and antisocial behaviour are externalizing symptoms. Furthermore antisocial behaviour is associsiated with substance use. Conduct disorder at adolescence have continuity with antisocial behaviour in adulthood and alcohol misuse in adolescence predict alcohol misuse in adulthood. This study examines association between conduct disorder and alcohol use in adolescence and antisocial behaviour and alcohol use in adulthood. Additionally this study examines ADHD symptoms effect to potential association. Methods. The data of this study is a part of a Finnish FinnTwin12 longitudinal study. The sample of this study consists of 1336 person. This study used 14 years and early adulthood (ages between 21 and 26 years) follow-up. Conduct symptoms, alcohol use and ADHD symptoms at adolescence were assessed with the C-SSAGA -psychiatric interview method for children. Antisocial behaviour and alcohol use at early adulthood were assessed with SSAGA -psychiatric interview method. Association between antisocial behaviour and alcohol use were analyzed with cross-lagged panel model. Results and conclusions. Conduct symptoms in adolescence is connected with antisocial behaviour and alcohol use at adulthood. However, alcohol use in adolescence is not connected with antisocial behaviour in adulthood. According to this study, support methods would be important to focus to children and youth with conduct symptoms. This create a possibility to prevent future problems related with alcohol use and antisocial behaviour.
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(2020)Aims: The transdiagnostic cognitive-behavioral model of eating disorders (ED) views EDs as a single disorder with different clinical manifestations, but the CBT effectiveness research thus far has mostly only pooled results within individual ED categories. A panoramic meta-analysis (PMA) synthesizes evidence across indications, and here the aim is to explore whether a PMA in the context of CBT for EDs provides an unbiased and precise effect estimate when pooling across the ED diagnoses. Methods: Reviews that synthesize RCTs of CBT for EDs were searched, and reviews that met inclusion criteria and included meta-analytic data or valid data from a single RCT were included in the PMA. Two PMAs (CBT vs active controls, CBT vs inactive controls) were performed. The outcome most commonly employed in the meta-analyses identified in the search was chosen as the outcome of interest. Findings: Of the n=24 meta-analyses, only n=7 were eligible for the PMA. The analysis provided support for the effectiveness of CBT vs inactive controls ((SMD: 0.32, 95% CI: 0.05 to 0.59, I2= 38.1%) but results were inconclusive when CBT was compared to active controls (SMD: 0.01, 95% CI: -0.35 to 0.36, I2=75.2%). Conclusions: Due to the methodological limitations of this thesis, several central comprehensive meta-analyses had to be excluded from the PMA. Thus, this PMA failed to provide a precise and unbiased synthesis of existing data of the effectiveness of CBT for EDs across the diagnoses.
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(2021)Objectives. Different biases induced by stimulus and response history have been identified in the field of perceptual psychology. Serial dependence is a bias in the perception of objects caused by previous stimuli. Perception can also be biased towards the average of previous stimuli. This is called central tendency bias. The interdependence of responses in a serial task is serial response bias. These history biases have mostly been studied separately despite their effects being similar. This thesis aims to unravel the independent effects of the biases on observers’ responses in a perceptual task and the effect of working memory delay on their magnitude. Methods. The biases were studied with two experiments. Eleven subjects took part in the first experiment which used colored patches with different hues as stimuli. The second experiment had 7 subjects and used grating patches differing in orientation. Subjects were presented with a continuous stream of reference and comparison stimuli. In each trial, they had to respond if the comparison stimulus, presented second, was bluer or greener or was oriented more to the left or the right than the reference stimulus, presented first. Inter-stimulus interval was either short or long in two blocked conditions. The independent effects of the history biases on responses were tested using a generalized linear mixed model with a probit link function. Results and conclusions. In the hue experiment, independent effects were found for all history biases. Previous stimuli attracted the perception of subsequent stimuli and this effect lasted for 12-16 seconds. Independently of this, the percept was also biased towards the average of previous stimuli. In addition, subjects tended to change their response between trials. Working memory delay had no observable effect on the magnitude of the biases. In the orientation experiment, results on serial dependence were mixed, likely due to more noise in the data. Central tendency bias was not observed. Response bias was dependent on the inter-stimulus interval in such a way that with a short delay, subjects were more likely to repeat their choices and with a long, delay they were more likely to alternate between choices. The results clarify the relationships between previously reported history biases. Neither central tendency bias nor serial response bias can explain serial dependence. Furthermore, the results suggest that serial dependence cannot originate solely from the inertia of responses.
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(2024)The aim of this thesis was to examine the test-retest reliability of three outcome-based behavioural tasks - the reversal learning task, the weather prediction task, and the working memory task - with three measuring sessions. In addition, the aim was to determine the more reliable of the two learning tasks: the reversal learning task and the weather prediction task. Test-retest reliability refers to a task’s ability to produce reliable results when repeated. The repetition of a task has been found to cause a so-called retest effect which means the changing of test scores when the participants is exposed to an identical or similar test in the past. The magnitude of this retest effect depends, for example, on the temporal interval of the measurements, the design of the task, and the age and intelligence of the participant. The reversal learning task, the weather prediction task, and the working memory task are all utilized in health care and their test-retest reliability may have clinical implications. The participants were 40 healthy adults aged 18 to 35, and all of them were subjected to two of the behavioural tasks in three sessions with 4 to 14 day intervals. The data was analyzed with an intraclass correlation coefficient suitable for the determining of test-retest reliability and analyses of variance. The results of the analyses of variance were further analyzed with pairwise comparisons. The intraclass correlation coefficients of the behavioural tasks ranged from moderate to good. The reversal learning task’s analysis of variance revealed statistically significant variance in the outcome variables between sessions. Similarly, the reaction times of the weather prediction task had statistically significant variance between the sessions. The working memory task’s accuracy, on the other hand, had statistically significant variance between trial types. Reaction times of the working memory task had statistically significant variance between both the sessions and the trial types. Test-retest reliability is a complex issue which cannot be determined in a single study. That being said, the results of this study support the repeated clinical use of these instruments among healthy adults of 18 to 45 years of age and with the 4 to 14 day interval. When it comes to the learning tasks, the weather prediction task seemed to be the more reliable one, but the differences were small.
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(2022)The aim of the study. Spontaneous eye blink rate (sEBR) is a behavioral index that has been linked to frontostriatal dopaminergic activity. Reduced or increased dopaminergic activity due to clinical conditions tends to be associated with lower or higher sEBR, respectively, and sEBR can be modulated by pharmacological agents that affect dopamine signaling. Consequently, sEBR could serve as an easily accessible method of assessing brain dopaminergic tone indirectly in humans. It might be preferable to more expensive and invasive techniques such as positron emission tomography. However, it remains unclear whether variations in dopaminergic genes predict sEBR. In this cross-sectional study, the relationship between sEBR and dopaminergic genotype was examined in two samples. Two genetic polymorphisms were focused on: the COMT Val158Met polymorphism and the A1 allele of the Taq1A polymorphism. It was hypothesized that the COMT Val158Met polymorphism is associated with higher sEBR, and that the A1 allele of the Taq1A polymorphism is associated with lower sEBR. As BMI and diet have been linked with altered striatal dopamine function, the possible association between BMI, diet, and sEBR was studied exploratively. Methods. Data from three cross-sectional studies was used in this study: The intervention study (n = 31) is an experimental study that examines the effect of acute phenylalanine/tyrosine depletion on cognitive measures. The GREADT study (n = 86) focuses on the effects of genotype and diet on dopamine tone. The BEDOB study (n = 69) investigates neurocognitive mechanisms in obesity and binge eating disorder. Similar methodologies were used in the GREADT and the BEDOB studies, which is why these datasets were combined for the analyses. Blink rates were measured using an infrared eye tracking system. The participants completed the Dietary Fat and free Sugar Questionnaire (DFS) to assess how much they consumed saturated fat and refined sugar. In the GREADT/BEDOB sample, the associations between the polymorphisms, BMI, DFS-score, and sEBR were examined with univariate analyses of variance. In the intervention study sample, a generalized linear mixed model was run to check whether sEBR changed in the intervention and whether the genotypes, BMI, or DFS-score affected sEBR. Results. No influence of the genotypes was found on sEBR in either of the samples. BMI had a significant effect on sEBR in the GREADT/BEDOB sample. The association was significant in the overweight/obese group but not in the normal weight group. DFS-score did not influence sEBR in either of the samples. Conclusions. The results of this study converge with those of authors suggesting caution in using sEBR as a proxy for central dopamine functioning of healthy humans. In future studies, particular attention should be paid to methodological considerations when studying sEBR.
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(2023)Objectives: Associations between family socioeconomic status and child and adolescent mental health have garnered increasing research interest in the last few decades. Parental mental health has also been shown to affect these associations. The aim of this study was to investigate whether changes in household income are associated with changes in adolescent mental health, and whether parental psychological distress affects these possible associations. Methods: The sample of this study was derived from the UK Household Longitudinal Study, and consisted of 9233 British adolescents aged 10 to 15 years and their biological mothers, stepmothers, or adopted mothers. The data of this study was gathered in four separate study waves. Adolescent mental health was measured with the self-completed Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire total difficulties score. Parental psychological distress was measured with the 12-item version of the General Health Questionnaire. Household income was equivalised to account for family size and composition. The data was analysed using fixed effects and random effects panel models. Adolescent sex, adolescent age, and parent age were included in the models as potential confounding variables. Results and conclusions: Greater household income was associated with less self-reported mental health symptoms in adolescents, but changes in household income were not associated with changes in adolescent mental health. Increases in parental psychological distress were associated with increases in adolescent mental health symptoms. The sex of the adolescent was not associated with adolescent mental health, while results regarding adolescent and parent age were mixed. The findings of this study suggest that there is an association between household income and adolescent mental health, but this association may not be causal in nature. The results also corroborate the status of parental mental health as an important determinant of adolescent mental health.
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