* Infections in kids tied to subsequent mental illness risk.
The study, published in the journal JAMA Psychiatry on Wednesday, found that infections requiring hospitalizations were associated with an about 84% increased risk of being diagnosed with any mental disorder and an about 42% increased risk of using psychotropic drugs to treat a mental disorder. Less severe infections treated with anti-infective medications, like antibiotics, were associated with increased risks of 40% and 22%, respectively, the study found. . . .
The researchers found associations between any treated infection and the increased risk of later being prescribed medication for various childhood and adolescent mental disorders, with the risks differing for specific disorders.
Risks were increased for schizophrenia spectrum disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, personality and behavior disorders, mental retardation, autism spectrum disorders, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, oppositional defiant disorder/conduct disorder and tic disorders[.]
The last sentence of the first paragraph of the quotation from the news story above doesn't really make sense. The reason for the correlation is not known. The study does not support the claim that not treating an infection will prevent mental illness.
The data involve 1 million people in Denmark born from 1995 to 2012, which centralized health records make this kind of big data research possible and reliable. It is basically measuring childhood mental health conditions rather than adult conditions.
4 comments:
Risks were increased for schizophrenia spectrum disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, personality and behavior disorders, mental retardation, autism spectrum disorders, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, oppositional defiant disorder/conduct disorder and tic disorder"
i thought these were present at birth
All of them are syndromes, i.e. clusters of symptoms whose biological mechanism or cause isn't known and may not arise from a single mechanism). None are 100% hereditary, although some like schizophrenia have a very high hereditary component. Some, like mental retardation have many identified causes, a significant subset of which are environmental.
Schizophrenia spectrum disorders generally manifest in late adolescence and early young adulthood, it is hypothesized, due to the pruning of neurons in the brain at that stage of development.
Mental retardation and autism spectrum disorders are usually apparent by pre-school age. ADHD is frequently first manifests in an elementary school environment although diagnosis as an adult isn't uncommon. There are several subtypes and those with strong hyperactivity symptoms are typically noticed before those involving attention deficit without hyperactivity. There are fairly decent indications that it has multiple causes some genetic and some not. Oppositional defiant disorder/conduct disorder is almost entirely co-morbid with mixed type ADHD.
OCD also appears to have multiple causes: "OCD is a common disorder that affects adults, adolescents, and children all over the world. Most people are diagnosed by about age 19, typically with an earlier age of onset in boys than in girls, but onset after age 35 does happen. Twin and family studies have shown that people with first-degree relatives (such as a parent, sibling, or child) who have OCD are at a higher risk for developing OCD themselves. The risk is higher if the first-degree relative developed OCD as a child or teen. Ongoing research continues to explore the connection between genetics and OCD and may help improve OCD diagnosis and treatment. People who have experienced abuse (physical or sexual) in childhood or other trauma are at an increased risk for developing OCD. In some cases, children may develop OCD or OCD symptoms following a streptococcal infection—this is called Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal Infections (PANDAS)." Tic disorders share some similarities with OCD.
"Personality and behavioral disorders" covers a multitude of only dimly related dissimilar conditions with all sorts of varied ages of onset and risk factors.
Regarding Tic disorders (per Wikipedia): "Tic disorders are more common among males than females. As many as 1 in 100 people may experience some form of tic disorder, usually before the onset of puberty. Tourette syndrome is the more severe expression of a spectrum of tic disorders, which are thought to be due to the same genetic vulnerability. Nevertheless, most cases of Tourette syndrome are not severe. Although a significant amount of investigative work indicates genetic linkage of the various tic disorders, further study is needed to confirm the relationship." A wait and see approach is the most common treatment. Often people grow out of it.
Also while not all are present at birth and fewer still manifest symptomatically at birth, and certainly not all are neo-natal or genetic in causation, most of chronic. You have it and it becomes part of who you are, and you manage the symptoms, you don't cure it. This is a key reason that the medical model of mental health treatment, which was designed for conditions like diseases and accidents that can be treated and cured and are acute but short lived, has real problems in the mental health area.
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