Effects of family-based treatment on adolescent outpatients treated for anorexia nervosa in the Eating Disorder Unit of Helsinki University Hospital.

Background: Family therapy for adolescent anorexia nervosa (AN) has stronger evidence of efficacy in comparison with individual therapy, and family-based treatment (FBT) is the most evaluated in numerous randomized clinical trials. However, few studies have focused on how FBT performs outside of research settings. The current study is the first to assess clinical outcomes of FBT for adolescent AN in Finland, in a specialized outpatient clinic.

A novel outpatient treatment model for patients with severe and enduring anorexia nervosa: an observational study of patient characteristics, treatment goals, and treatment course.

Background: Approximately 20-30% of people with anorexia nervosa develop an enduring form of the disorder. In the present study a newly developed outpatient treatment unit for patients with severe and enduring anorexia nervosa was described. The treatment model is flexible, patient-centered, and aims at enhancing quality of life, maintaining medical stability, and minimizing harm.

Self-rated psychopathic traits in a sample of treatment-seeking adolescent girls with internalizing and externalizing disorders: comparisons to girls in the community.

Background: Psychopathy research has thus far focused mostly on child, male, and delinquent samples, but the results are most likely non-generalizable to adolescent girls with mental health disorders.

Aim: The present study aimed to compare self-rated psychopathic traits between female psychiatric outpatients and girls in the community, and to investigate how psychopathic traits relate to psychiatric disorders.

Method: The outpatient sample comprised 163 girls aged 15-17-years recruited from municipal mental health services.

Do seriously offending girls differ from their age- and offence type-matched male counterparts on psychopathic traits or psychopathy-related background variables?

Background: More research is needed to improve our understanding of the manifestation of psychopathic traits in violently offending girls. Our aim here was to assess psychopathic traits and psychopathy-related background variables in a Finnish nationwide consecutive sample of girls charged with violent crimes and referred to a pretrial forensic psychiatric examination. These girls were then compared to their male counterparts.

Self-assessed limited prosocial emotions do not distinguish community youth with psychosocial problems from those without them.

Background: In DSM 5, conduct disorder was expanded with the new specifier 'with limited prosocial emotions (LPE)'. These callous-unemotional traits have been emphasized as the 'core' of psychopathy syndrome providing greater information about current and future impairment. Individuals with callous-unemotional traits have shown elevated levels of impairment, and these traits have been suggested to serve as a useful indicator for psychiatric vulnerability and psychosocial maladjustment also among community youth.