[ad_1]
Growing up in underprivileged urban neighborhoods more than doubles your chances of developing a psychosis spectrum disorder before you reach middle age, according to a new study conducted by UC Davis and Concordia University closely of 4,000 families under surveillance for 30 years.
The results of the study suggest that an intervention via social policies and investments in the neighborhood improvement, as well as the identification of people most in need of help in observing certain behaviors of children, could prevent future debilitating diseases and associated social and personal costs, said the study's authors.
"One of the important messages from this study is that the stress and daily challenges of living in underfunded or impoverished communities can be detrimental to the well-being of individuals, whether they appear to be vulnerable or not," said Paul. D. Hastings, professor in the Department of Psychology at UC Davis and lead author of the article. He explained that if heredity is an important factor in the prediction of schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and other psychotic disorders – that is, that it breaks with the reality, such as delusional beliefs and hallucinations – this study clearly demonstrates that environmental factors experienced in childhood also affect future mental health.
The study, "Predicting spectrum diagnoses of psychosis in adulthood from social behaviors and neighborhood contexts in childhood" was published April 24 in the journal Development and psychopathology. Hastings conducted this study with co-authors Lisa Serbin, Dale Stack, William Bukowski, Daniel Dickson and Alex Schwartzman of Concordia University, Montreal, Canada; Jon Helm of the State University of San Diego; and Jane Ledingham from the University of Ottawa in Ottawa, Canada.
The origins of the Concordia Longitudinal Research Project go back to the 1970s, when the first researchers, Ledingham and Schwartzman, aimed to test existing theories about the roles of early difficulties and social characteristics of children in the development of psychiatric disorders.
The researchers followed families living in low-income urban communities located in the French-speaking part of Montreal, Quebec, with nearly 11,000 people. Peer school behavior reports were used to assess children's aggression, withdrawal, and sympathy. Beginning in the mid-2000s, Hastings, Schwartzman, and their colleagues began to examine the individual medical records of family members, as well as census data on neighborhood economic conditions over the previous three decades. On average, children were around 10 years old at the start of the study and were followed up at the age of 40. During the same period, their parents were between 30 and 60 years old. Residents of Quebec benefit from government-funded health care and researchers were able to analyze digitally coded records of affected families to identify psychiatric diagnoses.
"… improving neighborhood conditions for all families in economically disadvantaged communities and working directly with families of children with unsafe behaviors could improve people's quality of life and significantly reduce health care costs."
As the researchers were able to identify parental diagnoses in the sample studied, their analyzes predicted the future prevalence of psychiatric disorders in children, beyond what would result from inheritance, Hastings said. In adulthood, over 6% of children had developed schizophrenia, bipolar disorder with psychosis and other spectrum disorders of psychosis in adulthood, and children who grew up in the most economically disadvantaged neighborhoods were the most likely to be diagnosed with schizophrenia or bipolar disorder. disorder.
The study also found that social behaviors in children were powerful predictors of psychotic illnesses. In particular, children who were peer-reviewed as very aggressive and very abandoned were likely to develop psychosis spectrum disorders if they also grew up in poorer neighborhoods. "This hypothesis was one of the reasons that Dr. Schwartzman and Ledingham started this study in 1976 and, to my knowledge, is the first prospective longitudinal study showing that these characteristics combined with the use of these two types of medications were consistent. Aggression and withdrawal can predict future spectrum disorder psychosis, Hastings said.
He stated that these findings suggest that intervention with young children with these complex patterns of antisocial behavior could improve outcomes.
The study could help improve efforts to predict, identify and prevent serious mental illnesses, he said. "Once psychosis spectrum disorders have taken root, they are difficult to treat. It's a lot like ALS (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis) and similar diseases, "Hastings added. "Disorders like schizophrenia are really becoming chronic diseases that require constant care, management and maintenance. Reducing them by improving neighborhood conditions for all families in economically disadvantaged communities and by working directly with families of children at risk behaviors could improve people's quality of life and significantly reduce health care costs. "
This research was partially funded by a grant from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. The writing of this manuscript was funded by the UC Davis Center for Poverty Research, the UC Davis Mind and Brain Center, and the Concordia University Human Development Research Center. The study was made possible by the Quebec Access to Information Commission (No. 07 08 71), the Quebec Health Insurance Agency and the Quebec Ministries of Health and Education. .
[ad_2]
Source link