Disadvantaged adolescents in psychiatric treatment

In a prospective epidemiological study, a cohort of all children born in 1955 in Helsinki have so far been surveyed into their youth. On the basis of the present seven-year follow-up in adolescence, it was observed that the cumulative incidence of public psychiatric treatment is 9.1%. Marital status of the biological parents deviating from normal or the death of a parent as well as a low social status of the father are factors connected with an elevated risk of required psychiatric treatment during youth. The combined effects of such social risk factors are additive. The risk of necessary treatment was observed to be three times greater in young people who exhibited both risk factors during childhood. The results of the study indicate how preventive measures might be directed. At the same time, the need for more detailed studies in the future to allow preventive measures to be directed more accurately than hitherto, at children and families requiring them, is emphasized.