Title: Adults who were preemies may face more mental health risks | Reuters
Headings: Adults who were preemies may face more mental health risks
Adults who were preemies may face more mental health risks
Content: Researchers also lacked data on childhood or adolescent mental health. Most of the results in the current also appear tied to just one of the studies in the analysis, noted Dr. Margaret Kern, a psychology researcher at the University of Melbourne in Australia who wasn’t involved in the study. “While they claim their findings point to a universal effect, evidence for this is weak at best,” Kern said by email. It’s also possible that parents of the preemies in the study were extra protective of their children and helped buffer them from some of the potential mental health effects of an early arrival, Kern said. “Early development and risk for mental health illnesses are a combination of both nature and nurture,” Kern added. Very preterm birth can disrupt normal development of the brain and other physiological systems that support emotional and behavioral regulation, however, and in that respect the study findings make sense, said Dr. Bob Joseph, a neurobiology researcher at Boston University School of Medicine. “As the authors note, one of the main lines of current research is to understand how damaging neural inflammation in the very preterm neonate operates and can be controlled and tempered immediately after birth,” Joseph, who wasn’t involved in the study, said by email. SOURCE: bit.ly/2lLSlsN Pediatrics, online March 10, 2017. Our Standards: