Juha Moring

A comparison of clinical and research DSM-III-R diagnoses of schizophrenia in a Finnish national birth cohort : Clinical and research diagnoses of schizophrenia

As a prerequisite to the use of the Finnish National Hospital Discharge Register in psychiatric epidemiological research, we studied the diagnostic reliability of the register in terms of the psychiatric morbidity experienced by a national birth cohort. We investigated all entries to the register for a sample based upon the Northern Finland 1966 birth cohort at the age of 16 years (n=11017). Until the end of 1993 (age 27 years), a total of 563 subjects had a register diagnosis indicating a psychiatric illness, 37 of them being schizophrenia. When operational criteria (DSM-III-R) were applied to clinical information in the available original hospital records for cases of psychosis, personality disorder and substance abuse (n=249), 71 fulfilled criteria for schizophrenia, including all of the 37 cases in the register and an additional 34 (48% false-negatives), most frequently diagnosed in the register as schizophreniform or other psychosis. Despite the official use of DSM-III-R nomenclature, it appears that the clinical concept of schizophrenia in Finland, manifest within the register, remains very restrictive. The application of operational criteria is a necessary prerequisite for scientific research on schizophrenia.

Reasons for the diagnostic discordance between clinicians and researchers in schizophrenia in the Northern Finland 1966 Birth Cohort

Abstract.Background: The diagnosis of schizophrenia by clinicians is not always accurate in terms of operational diagnostic criteria despite the fact that these diagnoses form the basis of case registers and routine statistics. This poses a challenge to psychiatric research. We studied the reasons for diagnostic discordance between clinicians and researchers. Methods: The Northern Finland 1966 Birth Cohort (n = 11,017) was followed from mid-gestation to the end of the 31st year. Psychiatric outcome was ascertained through linkage to the national hospital discharge register containing clinical diagnoses made by the attending physician. The hospital notes of all subjects admitted to hospital during the period 1982–1997 due to psychiatric disorder were reviewed and 475 research, operational DSM-III-R diagnoses were formulated. Results: Ninety-six cases met operational criteria for schizophrenia. Fifty-five (57 %) had concordant diagnoses: both the clinical and research diagnoses were schizophrenia. Forty-one (43 %) had discordant diagnoses: the clinical diagnosis was other than schizophrenia (mainly schizophreniform or other psychosis). Discordant cases were more likely to be older at onset, experience a shorter treatment duration, fewer treatment episodes, and to have a comorbid diagnosis mental retardation. Conclusions: Clinicians do not make the diagnosis of schizophrenia as often as the application of operational criteria would suggest they should. The discordance between clinical diagnosis and the research, operational diagnosis is especially likely in cases having late onset and few contacts to psychiatric hospital.

Is a child's risk of early onset schizophrenia increased in the highest social class?

In a sample from the unselected, general population Northern Finland 1966 Birth Cohort, 11017 individuals alive at the age of 16 years were studied until the age of 27. The cumulative incidence of early onset schizophrenia until 23 years was higher (1.14%; 9/792) among young persons from the highest social class or class I (determined according to fathers occupation) than among children from lower social classes (0.47%; 48/10225), the difference being statistically significant (p < 0.05). The incidence of schizophrenia in the highest social class was higher than expected among girls, firstborns, children of young mothers under 30 and urban residents (p < 0.05) compared with lower social classes. When cases from the highest and other social classes were compared, there was no clear difference in background factors or clinical course. Four alcoholics, one of them also schizophrenic, were found among nine social class I fathers. The results suggest that in some families in Northern Finland, a fathers professional advancement, often linked to mental disorder, may be one determinant of an increased risk of schizophrenia in the child.

Interaction of genetic risk and adoptive parent communication deviance: longitudinal prediction of adoptee psychiatric disorders

BACKGROUND In the Finnish Adoptive Family Study of Schizophrenia, adoptee thinking disorders have been shown to be a joint effect of genetic liability for schizophrenia spectrum disorders and adoptive rearing-parent communication patterns. However, longitudinal predictions of clinical psychiatric disorders of the adoptees have not been reported. METHOD Adoptees (n = 109) who had no DSM-III-R disorder at initial assessment (median age 18 years) were selected from the total sample of the Finnish Adoption Study of Schizophrenia. They were defined as at high versus low genetic risk based upon the lifetime diagnoses of their biological, adopting-away mothers - schizophrenia spectrum disorder versus no spectrum disorder. At initial assessment, adoptive rearing parents were independently evaluated from tape-recorded Rorschach protocols scored as manifesting either high or low Communication Deviance (CD), a composite index of communication patterns that distract and befuddle listeners. Adoptees were independently re-diagnosed after a median interval of 14 years and followed-up from national registers for an additional 7 years. RESULTS The main effects of genetic liability (G) and CD of the adoptive parents (E), each taken separately, predicted significantly for psychiatric disorders of the adoptees as adults. However, when G, E, and their joint interaction effect were entered into the same logistic model, only the interaction effect was significant. The sample included seven adoptees with schizophrenia spectrum disorders, but a separate analysis to predict them was non-significant. CONCLUSION Genetic liability for schizophrenia spectrum disorder and an adoptive family rearing variable interact, predicting longitudinally and significantly to broadly defined adoptee psychiatric disorder.

Excess mortality among long-stay psychiatric patients in Northern Finland.

Abstract.Background: According to several studies, mortality in psychiatric patients is higher than in the general population, but cause-specific mortality analyses in long-stay psychiatric patients have not been studied very much. Individual follow-ups have been called for in order to identify possible treatment deficiencies and to make recommendations for clinical practices. In this study, mortality of long-stay psychiatric patients has been monitored for the years 1992–2000 and contrasted with that prevalent in the general population. Method: Data on psychiatric patients (N = 253) who were treated without a break for at least 6 months during 1992 in the Department of Psychiatry at Oulu University Hospital were linked with the National Death Register. Standardised mortality rates (SMRs) were determined according to gender, age groups, and different causes of death. Results: Of the total study population, 80.2 % had schizophrenia, 5.1 % other functional psychoses, 9.5 % organic mental disorders, 2.4 % personality disorders and 2.8 % mood disorders. Sixty-nine (27.3 %) of the patients (aged 31–88 years) had died before the end of the year 2000. The all-cause death risk for both males and females was four times that of the general population. The mortality risk was over ten-fold for males and almost 30-fold for females in the youngest age group (25–34 years), with suicides explaining about 75 % of these deaths. SMRs were found to decrease at older age, mortality thus approaching that of the general population. Diseases of the circulatory system were the most common single cause of death in both genders and mortality due to that cause exceeding mortality in the general population nearly 3.6-fold. However, the probability of death was highest (SMR 17.5) in connection with diseases of the digestive system. Increased risks of death due to respiratory complications (SMR 9.3), accidents (SMR 5.1) and neoplasms (SMR 2.1) were also noted. The overall death rates did not differ in relation to social class or professional education. Conclusions: Long-stay psychiatric patients were found to die from the same natural causes as the rest of the general population. However, the mortality risk of the long-stay psychiatric patients compared with that of the general population was notably higher, despite ongoing improvements in medical care and facilities. Inadequately organised somatic care and the prevailing culture of “non-somatic” treatment in psychiatry were suggested to, at least in part, explain this phenomenon. Attention ought to increasingly focus on somatic examinations and various health educational programmes specially designed for psychiatric patients and involving matters like healthy diet, smoking cessation and physical exercise. These practices should be a regular part of any patients treatment programme. Also, the need to recognise factors associated with a patients psychiatric disorder that could limit that patients ability to communicate somatic symptoms and/or even lead to a refusal by that patient to have somatic diseases treated was seen as essential for providers of psychiatric services.

Thought disorder index of Finnish adoptees and communication deviance of their adoptive parents.

BACKGROUND Diverse forms of thought disorder, as measured by the Thought Disorder Index (TDI), are found in many conditions other than schizophrenia. Certain thought disorder categories are primarily manifest during psychotic schizophrenic episodes. The present study examined whether forms of thought disorder qualify as trait indicators of vulnerability to schizophrenia in persons who are not clinically ill, and whether these features could be linked to genetic or environmental risk or to genotype-environment interactions. The Finnish Adoptive Study of Schizophrenia provided an opportunity to disentangle these issues. METHODS Rorschach records of Finnish adoptees at genetic high risk but without schizophrenia-related clinical diagnoses (N = 56) and control adoptees at low genetic risk (N = 95) were blindly and reliably scored for the Thought Disorder Index (TDI). Communication deviance (CD), a measure of the rearing environment, was independently obtained from the adoptive parents. RESULTS The differences in total TDI between high-risk and control adoptees were not statistically significant. However, TDI subscales for Fluid Thinking and Idiosyncratic Verbalization were more frequent in high-risk adoptees. When Rorschach CD of the adoptive rearing parents was introduced as a continuous predictor variable, the odds ratio for the Idiosyncratic Verbalization component of the TDI of the high-risk adoptees was significantly higher than for the control adoptees. CONCLUSIONS Specific categories of subsyndromal thought disorder appear to qualify as vulnerability indicators for schizophrenia. Genetic risk and rearing-parent communication patterns significantly interact as a joint effect that differentiates adopted-away offspring of schizophrenic mothers from control adopted-away offspring.

The use of videoconferencing for telepsychiatry in Finland.

Some of the first telepsychiatry experiments in Finland were carried out at the Department of Psychiatry of the University of Oulu, where videoconferencing has been used for family therapy, occupational counselling, consultation and teaching. In 1996 videoconferencing was used for a total of 249 hours, which increased to 434 hours in 1997. During 1997, 45 of the time was used for teaching, 26 for occupational counselling, consultations and therapies, 23 for training and 6 for administration mainly testing the connections . In a survey, 37 participants rated aspects of the quality of the videoconferences on a scale from 4 poor to 10 excellent . The audio quality had a mean value of 8.0 SD0.9 , the picture quality 7.5 SD1.5 , and the general value of the videoconference was rated 7.5 SD1.0 . Preliminary results with telepsychiatry in Finland have been promising. Interactive videoconferencing provides an easy, fast and relatively inexpensive method of providing psychiatric services over long distances.

Interaction of Genetic and Psychosocial Factors in Schizophrenia

What the genetic and family dynamic theory have in common, is that the cause of schizophrenia could be found in the family. Usually the genetic factors and the rearing factors are confounded in the same family. In a study of adoptive children given away for adoption early enough, discrimination between these two sets of factors is possible.

Psychiatric inpatient care planning via telemedicine

We assessed the costs of psychiatric inpatient care-planning consultations to remote areas using videoconferencing, instead of the conventional face-to-face consultations at a hospital. The data were collected from all wards at the department of psychiatry of Oulu University Hospital over 11 months. A total of 14 videoconferences were conducted with two primary-care centres located 220 km and 160 km from Oulu. During the same period, 20 conventional consultations at the Oulu University Hospital were also assessed. A questionnaire was completed by a total of 124 patients, relatives and health-care personnel; the response rate was about 90%. Of the respondents, 90% were satisfied with the quality of communication afforded by videoconferencing. At a workload of 20 patients per year, the cost of the videoconferences was FM2510 per patient; the cost of the conventional alternative was FM4750 per patient. At 50 care consultations per year, a remote municipality would save about FM117,000.

Juvenile mortality, mental disturbances and criminality : a prospective study of the Northern Finland 1966 birth cohort

Mortality, criminality and mental illness among young adults were studied in an unselected birth cohort of 12 058 children born live in Northern Finland during 1966. The cohort members were followed up to the age of 27 years. The total number of all deaths was 117, and 79.5% of these deaths were from unnatural causes. The mortality of males was more than threefold higher than that of females. There was a significantly higher mortality risk in men with schizophrenia (OR, 9.31; 95% CI, 3.14–25.53), other psychoses (OR, 10.28; 95% CI, 2.40–37.02), personality disorders (OR, 4.28; 95% CI, 1.04–14.67) and combined personality disorders and criminality (OR, 3.27,95% CI, 0.99–9.59). In the group of major mental disorders, 75% of deaths were suicides.