The psyche of premature babies in danger?
The psyche of a fragile population is the subject of unique research!
Prevention, early detection and effective therapy of mental problems in school-age children born prematurely - this was the main goal of the three-year project Care for the Mental Health of Premature Children, the results of which were presented at a press conference in December 2023 by the multidisciplinary research team MUDr. Daniela Marková from the Department of Pediatrics and Hereditary Disorders of Metabolism, 1st Faculty of Medicine, UK and VFN.
During the research, the experts diagnosed a third of the monitored children with a psychiatric disorder and recommended that half of them seek subsequent professional care. MD Daniela Marková points out: "Ppsychiatric disorders of premature school-age children must be intensively addressed. The essential output of our project confirms the worldwide recommendation that this "fragile population" should be monitored throughout childhood up to adolescence, not only until the originally recommended 2 years of the child's age.”
Children aged 10 to 14 participated in the three-year research. The team of experts repeatedly focused on pediatric, psychiatric, psychological and motor development. Currently, premature children are normally monitored up to two years of age, but it is becoming increasingly clear that this should also be done in pre-school and school age. "At the age of two and five, we still thought that our children did not have these difficulties, that they had managed it and that the most difficult period was behind them. However, with the start of school, it is becoming more and more evident that with additional demands on them often come anxiety and even depression as well as manifestations of hyperactivity", adds MUDr. Markova. One of the outputs of the research are new professional materials for general practitioners, who will be able to draw attention to deviations in premature babies on the basis of them.