Somatic Health and Psychosocial Background Among Finnish Adolescents with Gender Dysphoria Seeking Hormonal Interventions.

Purpose: Although the number of young adults suffering from gender dysphoria (GD) is increasing, reports focusing on their somatic health remain scarce. We studied the somatic health, pubertal development, psychosocial background, and interest regarding gender-affirming surgical treatment of Finnish adolescents seeking gender-affirming hormonal treatment (GAHT).

Methods: In this retrospective register study at an adolescent gynecology clinic in Helsinki University Hospital, Finland we included 124 adolescents diagnosed with GD and referred to GAHT between January 1, 2011 and December 31, 2018.

Adolescent development and psychosocial functioning after starting cross-sex hormones for gender dysphoria.

To assess how adolescent development progresses and psychiatric symptoms develop among transsexual adolescents after starting cross-sex hormone treatment. Retrospective chart review among 52 adolescents who came into gender identity assessment before age 18, were diagnosed with transsexualism and started hormonal gender reassignment. The subjects were followed over the so-called real-life phase of gender reassignment.

An evaluation of ICD-11 posttraumatic stress disorder criteria in two samples of adolescents and young adults exposed to mass shootings: factor analysis and comparisons to ICD-10 and DSM-IV.

Background: The proposed posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) criteria for the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) 11th revision are simpler than the criteria in ICD-10, DSM-IV or DSM-5. The aim of this study was to evaluate the ICD-11 PTSD factor structure in samples of young people, and to compare PTSD prevalence rates and diagnostic agreement between the different diagnostic systems. Possible differences in clinical characteristics of the PTSD cases identified by ICD-11, ICD-10 and DSM-IV are explored.

The role of attachment in recovery after a school-shooting trauma.

Background: Survivors of life-endangering trauma use varying resources that help them to recover. Attachment system activates in the times of distress, and is expected to associate with stress responses, arousal regulation, and mental health.

Objective: We examined the associations of attachment style with posttraumatic stress disorders (PTSD) symptoms and dissociative symptoms, and posttraumatic growth (PTG) among students exposed to a school shooting in Finland in a three-wave follow-up setting.

[A young person in psychiatric emergency service].

In a psychiatric emergency call situation an under-age person is entitled to make decisions concerning her/himself and her/his treatment, and the physician shall act for the young person's best. When necessary, child protection should be informed and in suspected sexual offence, also the police. The assessment of the need for psychiatric treatment must be based on patient history evaluated under undisturbed conditions.

Adolescents' experiences of psychosocial support after traumatisation in a school shooting.

Background:   In November 2007, a student shot and killed eight people and himself at Jokela High School, Finland.

Method:   Availability and experiences of psychosocial support were investigated using data (N=231) collected with a questionnaire 4 months after the event.

Results:   Female gender, severity of trauma, psychiatric disturbance and post-traumatic distress were associated with receiving psychosocial support.

Effects of media exposure on adolescents traumatized in a school shooting.

This study analyzes the impact of the media on adolescents traumatized in a school shooting. Participants were trauma-exposed students (n = 231) and comparison students (n = 526), aged 13-19 years. A questionnaire that included the Impact of Event Scale and a 36-item General Health Questionnaire was administered 4 months after the shooting.

A controlled follow-up study of adolescents exposed to a school shooting--psychological consequences after four months.

Background: In November 2007, a student shot eight people and himself at Jokela High School, Finland. This study aims to evaluate the long-term effects of exposure to a school shooting among adolescents.

Method: Associations between psychological outcomes and background factors were analysed and compared with "comparison students" four months after the incident.

Intensive fish farming and the evolution of pathogen virulence: the case of columnaris disease in Finland.

Ecological changes affect pathogen epidemiology and evolution and may trigger the emergence of novel diseases. Aquaculture radically alters the ecology of fish and their pathogens. Here we show an increase in the occurrence of the bacterial fish disease Flavobacterium columnare in salmon fingerlings at a fish farm in northern Finland over 23 years.

Saprophytism of a fish pathogen as a transmission strategy.

Fish farming creates conditions where disease transmission is enhanced and antibiotic treatments are commonly used to cure bacterial diseases to prevent severe losses due to infections. Ability to persist in such an environment has been suggested to lead to the evolution of high virulence. Columnaris disease caused by Flavobacterium columnare is a growing problem in freshwater fish farming.

The efficacy of two immunostimulants against Flavobacterium columnare infection in juvenile rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss).

Bacterium Flavobacterium columnare is the causative agent of columnaris disease in many wild and farmed fish species. Immunostimulants are used with success in aquaculture against many pathogens, but the ability to improve innate resistance to columnaris disease has not been studied. Fingerling rainbow trout were treated with two immunostimulants, yeast beta-glucan and beta-hydroxy-beta-methylbutyrate (HMB).

Flavobacterium columnare colony types: connection to adhesion and virulence?

Four different colony morphologies were produced by Flavobacterium columnare strains on Shieh agar plate cultures: rhizoid and flat (type 1), non-rhizoid and hard (type 2), round and soft (type 3), and irregularly shaped and soft (type 4). Colonies produced on AO agar differed from these to some extent. The colony types formed on Shieh agar were studied according to molecular characteristics [Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism (AFLP), Automated Ribosomal Intergenic Spacer Analysis (ARISA), and whole cell protein SDS-PAGE profiles], virulence on rainbow trout fingerlings, and adhesion on polystyrene and fish gills.

Chondroitin AC lyase activity is related to virulence of fish pathogenic Flavobacterium columnare.

The virulence of eight Flavobacterium columnare strains was studied to find correlations between several virulence-related factors and virulence. Virulence was tested in vivo using rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss (Walbaum). Suggested virulence-related factors such as production of the degradative enzyme chondroitin lyase, plasmid occurrence and adhesion capability were studied in vitro.

Molecular diversity and growth features of Flavobacterium columnare strains isolated in Finland.

Columnaris disease caused by Flavobacterium columnare is a problem in fish farming worldwide. During the last 15 yr, outbreaks have started to emerge in Finland. Flavobacterium columnare Type Strain NCIMB 2248T and 30 Finnish F.

A link between ectoparasite infection and susceptibility to bacterial disease in rainbow trout.

Rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss, were infected concomitantly with Argulus coregoni and Flavobacterium columnare and their survival was compared with that of fish infected with either the parasite or the bacterium alone. The mortality of fish challenged with A. coregoni was negligible while infection with F.

Freezing induces biased results in the molecular detection of Flavobacterium columnare.

Specific PCR detection and electron microscopy of Flavobacterium columnare revealed the risk of false-negative results in molecular detection of this fish pathogen. Freezing and thawing destroyed the cells so that DNA was for the most part undetectable by PCR. The detection of bacteria was also weakened after prolonged enrichment cultivation of samples from infected fish.

Evidence of enhanced bacterial invasion during Diplostomum spathaceum infection in European grayling, Thymallus thymallus (L.).

Farmed grayling, Thymallus thymallus (L.), are susceptible to atypical Aeromonas salmonicida (aAS) infections. Interactions between bacteria and parasites were studied using grayling subjected to concomitant exposure to aAS bacteria and the digenean parasite Diplostomum spathaceum.

Reliability of mitochondrial DNA in an acanthocephalan: the problem of pseudogenes.

The utility of mitochondrial DNA as a molecular marker for evolutionary studies is well recognized. However, several problems can arise when using mitochondrial DNA, one of which is the presence of nuclear mitochondrial pseudogenes, or Numts. Pseudogenes of cytochrome oxidase I were preferentially amplified from Acanthocephalus lucii (Acanthocephala) using a universal PCR approach.

Treatment of columnaris disease of rainbow trout: low pH and salt as possible tools?

The impact of salt and low pH on columnaris disease of fish was studied. Survival of Flavobacterium columnare after exposure to either 4% NaCl (pH 7.2) or pH 5.

Treatment of ichthyophthiriasis after malachite green. I. Concrete tanks at salmonid farms.

Since the use of malachite green was banned in many European countries, new alternative treatments have been tested to prevent white spot disease caused by Ichthyophthirius multifiliis. We tested formalin, potassium permanganate (KMnO4), chloramine-T, hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) and Per Aqua or Desirox alone or in combinations of 2 chemicals, one of which was always formalin, in 50 m2 concrete tanks at 2 farms producing salmon Salmo salar smolt in 2001 and 2002. Both Per Aqua and Desirox are combinations of peracetic acid, acetic acid and hydrogen peroxide.

Influence of rearing conditions on Flavobacterium columnare infection of rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss (Walbaum).

The influence of rearing conditions on Flavobacterium columnare infection of rainbow trout, Oncorhynchus mykiss (Walbaum), was studied experimentally in the laboratory and at a fish farm. In experiment I, the effect of parasitic infection on columnaris disease was studied using F. columnare carrier fish.

Effect of Pseudomonas sp. MT5 baths on Flavobacterium columnare infection of rainbow trout and on microbial diversity on fish skin and gills.

Use of Pseudomonas sp. strain MT5 to prevent and treat Flavobacterium columnare infection was studied in 2 experiments with fingerling rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss. In the first experiment, length heterogeneity analysis of PCR-amplified DNA fragments (LH-PCR) was used to assess the effect of antagonistic baths on the microbial diversity of healthy and experimentally infected fish.

Sphingosine-1-phosphate inhibits nuclear factor kappaB activation and germ cell apoptosis in the human testis independently of its receptors.

Early apoptosis-inducing events are potentially important targets for preventing germ cell loss caused by external stress. The sphingolipid sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) is an important regulator of stress-induced apoptosis. It affects the cell as an intracellular signaling molecule or as a ligand to its cell membrane-bound S1P(1-5) receptors.