We know that babies who are born prematurely tend to have a lag between their chronological age and their developmental age. A study finds that they are also at a higher risk for developing certain types of severe mental disorders than are their peers who were born full term.
There are statistics that say that one out of every eight babies is born as a preemie. This means that the baby was born before the pregnancy reached 37 weeks. Scientific research that has been done in areas that relate to health and medicine have helped even the youngest preemies to survive the birth and to thrive. This is remarkable!
Preemies tend to require extra medical care, right away. A preemie might spend some time in the NICU before he or she grows strong enough to go home with his or her parents. Preemies need to be screened for developmental delays and other special needs. Parents should expect that their preemie is less likely to reach certain developmental milestones at the typical chronological age.
A new study finds that there is something else for parents of preemies to be aware of. Premature babies are at a higher risk of developing severe depression, bipolar disorder, or psychosis. The study was done by researchers led by Chiara Nosarti from the Institute of Psychiatry and King’s College London. The group of researchers included scientists from Britain and Sweden.
The data that was analyzed by the researchers came from 1.3 million medical records. The records came from Sweden, and were recorded between 1973 and 1985. The researchers used those medical records to identify the number of preemies who were born in that timeframe and who were admitted to the hospital with their first episode of a psychiatric disorder before the year 2002.
The researchers found that people who were born at less than 32 weeks gestation were three times more likely to be hospitalized with a psychiatric illness by the time they were 16 years of age, or older. The study indicates that babies who were born as preemies were 2.5 times more likely to develop psychosis, 3 times more likely to develop severe depression, and 7.4 times more likely to develop bipolar disorder than were their peers who reached the full gestation period before being born.
Overall, the researchers said that the higher risk of developing a psychological disorder due to being a preemie affects between 1% and 6% of the population as a whole. It is thought that the reason for the higher risk has something to do with brain development that occurs after the point in the pregnancy where a preemie was born. They miss out on that time period of brain development.
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