Ages ago we were informally discussing teen sex during a coffee break in Tampere School of Public Health. How to advise teens about when one is mature enough to have sex? Someone had suggested her daughter that not before “she is so much in love that she could lick the man between his toes”. (That…
For at least 20 years public discussion has assumed that adolescent depression, anxiety disorders, eating disorders and other internalising problems are constantly increasing. Research has not supported this assumption. With the sudden remarkable increase in referrals to all levels of adolescent mental health and psychiatric services in past three years, we decided to replicate the…
A big change ahead: in October this year, all our adolescent psychiatric services will be relocated to the new hospital for children and adolescents, Tays lasten ja nuorten sairaala (https://www.tays.fi/fi-FI/Toimipaikat/Tays_Keskussairaala/Taysin_uudistaminen/Etupihan_uudisrakennukset). The first adolescent psychiatric inpatient ward in Finland was opened in Pitkäniemi hospital in 1959. The 60th anniversary will certainly be a good moment for…
You might think that winter comes every year and it is pretty predictable when this takes place. But winter surprised me again. One day it occurred to me that it may be time to let change winter wheels to my car, and the next day they were already absolutely needed. Fortunately, this could be arranged….
I was interviewed for a newspaper article about the increase in referrals to adolescent psychiatric services. Many feel it is too difficult to get help. But the journalist surprised me by asking if mental disorders actually can be cured. Or does a psychiatric diagnosis in adolescence mean that a life-long struggle and misery is ahead,…
Quite some years ago, a son of a friend of mine had a sports accident and suffered a femoral fracture. A lengthy immobility was demanded, and the recovery time was very bothersome in a myriad of ways. He went to school anyway, even though this necessitated special arrangements. It had not occurred to me then…
Finally holidays, and after some day out of office my hospital email is already full and I cannot use it with the mobile phone. This is a much needed break! The end of the spring term was most inspiring for me. First I acted as opponent to Olav Nyttingnes who defended his doctoral thesis on…
Referrals to adolescent psychiatric services have suddenly increased with about a third throughout Finland. Epidemiological studies, however, do not support the assumption that adolescent mental health disorders would be increasing in prevalence in Finland or elsewhere, particularly not all of a sudden. Perhaps this is positive – destigmatization of psychiatric problems has succeeded and people…
When I first started to work as a physician we had lots of patients in mental health services who were depressed and exhausted. Sick leave was often discussed. This is certainly the case nowadays, too. But that time, the common understanding in the society was that negative events and bad circumstances in private life were…
A particularly naive legislative proposal is being seriously discussed in the Finnish society: an initiative that when school bullying occurs, the bully should be made to change school instead of the victim. Of adolescents who are frequently involved in bullying as perpetrators, almost a half are also frequently subjected to bullying themselves. On the other…