Can a Universal Mindfulness Intervention in Schools Reduce ADHD Symptoms among Adolescents? A Cluster Randomized Controlled Trial.

Existing studies suggest that mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) can reduce ADHD symptoms when delivered as targeted clinical programs to young people diagnosed with ADHD. However, there is currently a lack of research on whether MBIs are effective in reducing elevated ADHD symptoms when delivered as universal programs to whole classes in schools. This study investigated the effects of a universal nine-week MBI (.

Maternal psychological distress and temperament traits in children from infancy to late childhood.

Background: Maternal psychological distress during pregnancy is associated with infant temperament. Whether associations persist into late childhood, whether maternal distress is associated with temperament change from infancy to late childhood, whether associations are independent of maternal concurrent distress, and whether maternal distress has sensitive exposure periods on child temperament remain unclear.

Methods: Our study includes mother-child dyads from Finnish, prospective Prediction and Prevention of Preeclampsia and Intrauterine Growth Restriction study.

Epigenetic signature of very low birth weight in young adult life.

Background: Globally, one in ten babies is born preterm (<37 weeks), and 1-2% preterm at very low birth weight (VLBW, <1500 g). As adults, they are at increased risk for a plethora of health conditions, e.g.

Development and validation of the puppy blues scale measuring temporary affective disturbance resembling baby blues.

It has been described that many puppy owners experience a state called puppy blues involving stress, worry, anxiety, strain, frustration, or regret. While puppy blues is a commonly used term among dog owners, the term is nearly nonexistent in scientific literature. In turn, analogous phenomenon, postpartum affective disturbance of infant caregivers, is well described in the literature.

Genetic risk of type 2 diabetes modifies the association between lifestyle and glycemic health at 5 years postpartum among high-risk women.

Introduction: Lifestyle interventions are effective in preventing type 2 diabetes, but genetic background may influence the individual response. In the Finnish gestational diabetes prevention study, RADIEL, lifestyle intervention during pregnancy and first postpartum year was effective in preventing gestational diabetes (GDM) and postpartum glycemic abnormalities only among women at highest genetic risk of type 2 diabetes. This study aimed to assess whether still 5 years postpartum the genetic risk modifies the association between lifestyle and glycemic health.

Biologically Informed Polygenic Scores for Brain Insulin Receptor Network Are Associated with Cardiometabolic Risk Markers and Diabetes in Women.

Backgruound: To investigate associations between variations in the co-expression-based brain insulin receptor polygenic score and cardiometabolic risk factors and diabetes mellitus.

Methods: This cross-sectional study included 1,573 participants from the Helsinki Birth Cohort Study. Biologically informed expression-based polygenic risk scores for the insulin receptor gene network were calculated for the hippocampal (hePRS-IR) and the mesocorticolimbic (mePRS-IR) regions.

A Pregnancy and Childhood Epigenetics Consortium (PACE) meta-analysis highlights potential relationships between birth order and neonatal blood DNA methylation.

Higher birth order is associated with altered risk of many disease states. Changes in placentation and exposures to in utero growth factors with successive pregnancies may impact later life disease risk via persistent DNA methylation alterations. We investigated birth order with Illumina DNA methylation array data in each of 16 birth cohorts (8164 newborns) with European, African, and Latino ancestries from the Pregnancy and Childhood Epigenetics Consortium.

Pet and owner personality and mental wellbeing associate with attachment to cats and dogs.

Human-pet attachment can impact the life of both parties, and the identification of underlying characteristics related to attachment style can improve human-pet relationships. We employed structural equation modeling (SEM) to explore associations between human, dog, and cat personalities, owner mental well-being, unwanted pet behavior, and attachment styles in a sample of 2,724 Finnish pet owners (92% women) and their 2,545 dogs and 788 cats. Our findings reveal that owner neuroticism and poor mental well-being are linked to anxious pet attachment in both dog and cat owners.

Independent Prediction of Child Psychiatric Symptoms by Maternal Mental Health and Child Polygenic Risk Scores.

Objective: Prenatal maternal symptoms of depression and anxiety are associated with an increased risk for child socioemotional and behavioral difficulties, supporting the fetal origins of mental health hypothesis. However, to date, studies have not considered specific genomic risk as a possible confound.

Method: The Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children (ALSPAC) cohort (n = 5,546) was used to test if child polygenic risk score for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), schizophrenia, or depression confounds or modifies the impact of prenatal maternal depression and anxiety on child internalizing, externalizing, and total emotional/behavioral symptoms from age 4 to 16 years.

Positive maternal mental health during pregnancy and psychiatric problems in children from early childhood to late childhood.

Negative maternal mental health during pregnancy increases the risk of psychiatric problems in children, but research on the potential benefits of positive maternal mental health during pregnancy is scarce. We investigated associations between positive maternal mental health composite score, based on reports of maternal positive affect, curiosity, and social support during pregnancy, and children's psychiatric problems (Child Behavior Checklist) at ages 1.9-5.

Sphingolipids accumulate in aged muscle, and their reduction counteracts sarcopenia.

Age-related muscle dysfunction and sarcopenia are major causes of physical incapacitation in older adults and currently lack viable treatment strategies. Here we find that sphingolipids accumulate in mouse skeletal muscle upon aging and that both genetic and pharmacological inhibition of sphingolipid synthesis prevent age-related decline in muscle mass while enhancing strength and exercise capacity. Inhibition of sphingolipid synthesis confers increased myogenic potential and promotes protein synthesis.

hexanucleotide repeat allele tagging SNPs: Associations with ALS risk and longevity.

hexanucleotide repeat expansion is a common cause of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). The locus may harbor residual risk outside the hexanucleotide repeat expansion, but the evidence is conflicting. Here, we first compared 683 unrelated amyotrophic lateral sclerosis cases and 3,196 controls with Finnish ancestry to find best single nucleotide polymorphisms that tag the hexanucleotide repeat expansion and intermediate-length alleles.

Delayed bedtime on non-school days associates with higher weight and waist circumference in children: Cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses with Mendelian randomisation.

Sleep duration has been linked with obesity in population-based studies. Less is known about bedtimes and, especially, if discrepancy between bedtimes on school and non-school days associate with adiposity in children. The associations of self-reported bedtimes with the body mass index z-score (BMIz) and waist-to-height ratio (WtHr) were examined among children with a mean (SD) age of 11.