Anne-Liis von Knorring

Psychopathology in Adopted-out Children of Alcoholics The Stockholm Adoption Study

The inheritance of alcohol abuse and other psychopathology was studied in 862 men and 913 women adopted by nonrelatives at an early age in Sweden. Both male and female adoptees had a greater risk of alcohol abuse if their biologic, but not adoptive, parents were alcoholic. We distinguished two types of alcoholism that have distinct genetic and environmental causes and that differ in frequency of alcohol abuse and somatoform disorders in women. The combination of both genetic and environmental risk factors is required for development of alcoholism in the most common type. In contrast, in families with the less common type of susceptibility, alcohol abuse is highly heritable in the men, but the women have multiple somatic complaints without alcohol abuse. The implications of these findings of genetic heterogeneity and gene-environment interaction are discussed in relation to research, prevention, and treatment.

Evaluation of postgraduate medical education given by the Swedish PTD Committee

The Swedish Committee for the Prevention and Treatment of Depression (the Swedish PTD committee) has created a series of educational programmes to be used in post-graduate education of general practitioners; they deal with the etiology, pathogenesis, diagnosis and treatment of depression. The separate chapters were presented to general practitioners on the island of Gotland in two separate educational programmes with one year in between. Before, in between and after the last educational programme, information was collected regarding number of suicides, number of attempted suicides, number of referrals to the Dept. of Psychiatry, number of emergency admissions, number of subjects on sickleave due to depression and number of prescriptions for antidepressants and minor tranquillizers. The general practitioners completed a questionnaire concerning knowledge about etiology, pathogenesis, diagnosis and treatment of depression, attitudes towards depressed patients and their treatment, current practice and person...

Barnpsykiatrisk slutenvård i två län, psykosociala bakgrundsfaktorer, vårddata och metodbeskrivning

Jaensson C, Brunnander E. Boden P-G, Cederblad, M, Hook B. von Knorring A-L. Barnpsykiatrisk slutenvird i tva lan, psykosociala bakgrundsfaktorer. varddata och metodbeskrivning.This is the first part of a study describing a sample of 375 children and adolescents in residential and day-care treatment 1978-79 and 1982-84. It deals with method and background data. In the study, a standardized journal, two standardized interviews and DSM III diagnoses from medical records have been taken into consideration. Most of the patients in residential treatment are teenagers. There are very few preschool children. Up to 12 years of age, there are more boys than girls and from 15 years and upwards girls are in the majority. Compared to a normal population, in-patients are more likely to come from families with a single parent, a step parent, adoptive parents or foster parents. Patients in contact with a divorced parent have more problems than the ordinary child with a divorced parent. Children given residential child p...

Tricyclic Antidepressants and Dental Caries in Children

Cyclic antidepressant treatment in adults is reported to increase caries activity. The aim of this study has been to evaluate if such treatment also causes a higher frequency of dental caries in children. Children with enuresis treated with tricyclic antidepressants (AD) were compared to matched controls and to enuretic children without antidepressant treatment. Dental records and radiographs were examined concerning caries activity. During the treatment period the mean caries activity was higher in the group of children treated with AD for 1 month or longer compared to both controls and enuretics without pharmacological treatment. These findings show the need to send the child to a dentist for optimal caries prophylaxis at the start of antidepressant treatment.

Barnpsykiatrisk slutenvård i två Iän: Psykotiska syndrom

Boden P-G, Brunnander E, Cederblad M, Hook B, Jaensson C, von Knorring A-L. Barnpsykiatrisk slutenvard i tva Ian: Psykotiska syndrom.This paper is part of a study describing a sample of 335 children and adolescents in residential treatment in the periods 1978-79 and 1982-84. It deals with the patients classified as schizophrenic disorders, schizophreniform disorders or atypical psychosis. Twenty-four patients (or 7%) received these diagnoses, and most of them were between 16 and 18 years of age. This group of patients differed less from a normal group than other residential patients as far as family factors were concerned. They also had less psychosocial stress before the residential treatment than other patients. More often than other patients the psychotic group of patients arrived at the department in an acute state. They had also less often been in contact with out-patient care. This group stayed in residential treatment for a longer period and were more often readmitted. They also received pharmacolo...

The risk of dental caries in extraverts

Abstract It has been demonstrated that extraverts have a lower saliva secretion rate than introverts. Furthermore, extraverts as well as subjects with high P-scores on the EPQ have been demonstrated to have a more pronounced risk-taking behaviour, possibly including a tendency to neglect health care programs. Thus it was hypothesised that extraverts and possibly also subjects with high P-scores would have an increased risk of caries. The Swedish translation of the 97 items JEPQ was administered to 101 15-year-old adolescents controlled at the annual dental status health control. Extraverts were found to have significantly more earlier caries and significantly more total caries and a tendency towards higher values in initial and manifest caries. Subjects with high P-scores were found to have significantly more manifest caries. No significant relationships were found between the frequency of caries and the N- or L-scales in the JEPQ.

Adoption och depression/ångest - en psykiatrisk studie av vuxna som bortadopterats som barn

Forsakringskassans statistik over sjukskrivningar och diagnoser har studerats i en epidemiologisk undersokning over 2215 adoptioner. Frekvensen psykiska sjukdomar bland de adopterade var signifikant hogre jamfort med de icke adopterade kontrollerna. En klassifikation i olika diagnostiska grupper, baserad pa journaler fran psykiatriska sjukhus, visar overrepresentation bade i de manliga och kvinnliga adoptionsgrupperna vad galler alkohol- och drogmissbruk samt personlighetsforandringar. I den manliga gruppen var aven neuroser overrepresenterade.Fran barnhalsovarden inhamtades information om de adopterades tidiga barndomsupplevelser. Har ingick alder vid placering i hemmen och typ av vard dessforinnan. Reaktiv neurotisk depression var signifikant korrelerad till placering vid en alder av 6-12 manader. Med detta enda undantag fann vi inget stod for hypotesen om ett samband mellan psykisk sjukdom och tidiga barndomsupplevelser.