Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Premature babies, psychiatric problems

Advances in medical technology mean that many more premature babies now survive but such children have an increased risk of cognitive, neuromotor and sensory problems later in life. A study by British researchers, led by Samantha Johnson who works at University College London and the University of Nottingham, studied 219 children who were born extremely prematurely and followed them to see how they were getting on 11 years later. At the age of 11 almost a quarter of the children had a psychiatric disorder. The most frequent conditions were Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) (12%), emotional disorders (9%) and autism-spectrum disorders (8%).

http://psychcentral.com/news/2010/04/26/extreme-premies-at-risk-for-psych-disorder/13160.html

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