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Purpose: The aim of this study was to assess the military performance of men with adolescent attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and men with childhood ADHD (in remission during adolescence) as compared with controls without ADHD. Methods: The study employs the general population-based Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1986 (NFBC1986) together with data received from the Finnish Defence Forces (FDF). A total of 38 men with childhood ADHD and 67 with adolescent ADHD were compared with 160 controls. Results: The men with adolescent ADHD were more often deemed unfit for military service, had more military health care visits, more often committed at least one offence during service, received poorer evaluations for team leadership skills and indulged in more alcohol consumption and smoking than the controls, while those with childhood ADHD did not differ from the controls in their military fitness, but received poorer evaluations for team leadership skills and smoked more than did the controls. Conclusions: The conscripts with adolescent ADHD performed worse on many military parameters, but the men with ADHD in remission did not seem to suffer from such negative effects on military performance. The childhood ADHD group in particular was nevertheless somewhat limited in size, which might have led to a Type II error.

The aim of the current study was to examine the associations of dispositional optimism and pessimism with cognitive abilities in adulthood. We performed two studies with data sets from the prospective Northern Finland Birth Cohort Studies: 26-year-olds (N = 383) and 46-year-olds (N = 5042). In both samples, dispositional optimism and pessimism were measured with Carver and Scheier’s Life Orientation Test -Revised. In the data of 26-year-olds, the cognitive abilities assessed were reasoning, vocabulary, verbal fluency, fine-motor skills, selective attention, impulse control, and memory, while in 46-year-olds, memory was assessed. The analyses were carried out using multiple linear regression, and the associations were adjusted for gender, educational level, mother’s educational level, and depression. Our results indicated that (I.) higher dispositional optimism and lower pessimism were associated with higher reasoning skills in young adults, and (II.) higher pessimism was related to lower scores on memory test in middle-aged adults. The findings provide a closer look on how dispositional optimism and pessimism are associated with the core cognitive abilities in adults.

Background: Maternal depression is common during pregnancy, affecting 10–15% of mothers. In previous reports, the offspring of antenatally depressed mothers have had an elevated risk for antisocial, criminal and violent behaviour in adolescence, and for borderline personality features in childhood, but long-term outcomes are unknown. Aims: To study whether the adult offspring of antenatally depressed mothers have an elevated risk for antisocial (ASPD) or borderline personality disorder (BPD) when followed until mid-adulthood. Methods: In the general population-based Northern Finland 1966 Birth Cohort, mothers of 12,058 children were asked during mid-gestation if they felt depressed. Of the mothers, 14% reported being depressed. The offspring were followed for 49 years. The diagnoses of in- and outpatient-treated ASPD and BPD in the offspring were detected using the Finnish Care Register for Healthcare. Maternal antenatal smoking, newborn’s low birthweight or short gestational age, father’s social class, and family type at birth were considered as confounding variables. Logistic regression analyses on the potential confounders were performed. Maternal postnatal depression and paternal ASPD information was not available. Results: In the male offspring of antenatally depressed mothers, the risk for ASPD was elevated (adjusted odds ratio 5.6; 95% confidence interval 1.8–17.8), but not in female offspring. The risk for BPD was not elevated in the offspring of antenatally depressed mothers in this study. Conclusions: The sons of antenatally depressed mothers had an increased risk for ASPD. Prevention and treatment of antenatal depression might present an opportunity to decrease the risk of antisocial personality in the offspring.

Background: Depression has been known to affect memory and other cognitive domains. The objective of this longitudinal cohort study was to investigate longitudinal associations between depressive symptoms at age 31 years and visual memory and new learning at the age of 46 years. We investigated whether depressive symptoms at age 31 predicted visual memory deficits at age 46 years, and whether changes in depressive symptoms between 31 and 46 years predicted visual memory at age 46. Methods: Participants were members of the Northern Finland Birth Cohort 1966. Depressive symptoms were assessed with the Symptom Checklist-25 (SCL-25) on both occasions. Visual memory and new learning were assessed using Paired Associative Learning (PAL) test at the age 46 follow-up. PAL total errors adjusted and first trial memory score were used as outcomes and basic educational level, relationship status, physical activity and diet at baseline were considered as confounding factors in linear regression analysis. Results: A total of 5029 (57% female) participants were included in the main analysis. No associations were found between depressive symptoms or change in depressive symptoms and visual memory and new learning scores. The result did not change following cut-offs 1.55 and 1.75 for depression. Limitations: SCL-25 only measures symptoms during the past week. Only one cognitive domain was assessed. Conclusions: Contrary to our hypothesis, neither baseline depressive symptoms nor change in depressive symptoms predicted visual memory scores 15 years later. It appears that sub-clinical depressive symptoms do not effect this cognitive domain in the middle-aged population.