A major study of 545,628 Swedish people born in the 1970s found that premature babies are at increased risk for anxiety, depression, and other psychiatric disorders as teenagers and young adults.

Dr. Karolina Lindstrom of Sachs Children's Hospital in Stockholm found that 3.5 percent of babies born in the late seventh or eighth months of pregnancy had been hospitalized for psychiatric disorders. Among the very prematurely born (sixth or early seventh month of pregnancy), the percentage was 5.2 - 68 percent higher than average.

This study appeared in the journal Pediatrics.

Labels: mental_health, premature-births

Posted By: Aspen Education Group