For this assignment, we were to find a genetics-related article from a newspaper and write a summary of it. We were then to find a scientific-review article to support our decision on whether or not we thought the information from the newspaper was accurate or not.

 “Childhood Attention Issues Show Links to Later Risk for Psychosis, Schizophrenia” from the news site U.S. News is the article that I chose. This article was interesting and informative for being a news article. The purpose of this article is to inform that researchers have found a possible link between attention issues as a child and the development of psychiatric conditions in adolescence or later in life based on genetics. 

            The article starts out by prefacing that not all children who have attention issues will not develop the psychiatric conditions that are mentioned in this article, these conditions being psychosis and schizophrenia, but that there is a possibility depending on their genetics. The information provided is just what is being discovered and there is still much progress to be made to be able to identify these specific factors and linkages. Psychosis can be described as a loss of contact with reality, and it can change how your brain processes information. Schizophrenia is a form of psychosis, but it has other distinguishing symptoms as well. The study that this article covers was a study by Dr. Carrie Bearden and her team, who published their findings in a health journal. Over 10,000 children, from ages nine to adolescence, were participants of this study and it looked at cognitive, brain, and genetic information for six years. This was to allow the team to compare the rates of the attention issues and genetics with the probability of a child developing psychosis within adolescence. The research conducted led to the discovery that about 4% to 16% of the connection between genetics and forming symptoms of psychosis can be explained by issues in childhood attention-spans. Although this information was found, attention issues were determined to not be the only cause and that there are other risk factors. There still needs to be a better understanding of these connections and Dr. Bearden hopes to help identify these factors to form better understanding of these mental illnesses. Leading to new targets could hopefully prevent these illnesses from developing or treat ongoing systems.¹

            This article was intriguing and informative for being a short article. There was not much added about their findings other than a few percentages, but I do think that there is accuracy within this article. There are many other articles as well as journal articles that cover similar findings, so I do believe this information is accurate.

             The supporting journal article I found is from the National Library of Medicine, titled “Association of Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder in Childhood and Adolescence with the Risk of Subsequent Psychotic Disorder.” This journal article was published a few years before the news article, so that lets me know that this is more of a recent idea to study. The purpose for this study was the same as the previous one, to research the link between childhood attention issues and the increased risk of psychotic disorder development. There were over one million participants over twelve studies. This article went more in depth about the process of accumulating and analyzing the data, but the findings were similar. The findings were the same in the way that it is believed that the association between developing psychosis symptoms and disorders in adolescence is not a direct link with attention disorders in youth, but that there is something deeper within genetics that can influence these developments. One thing to keep in mind about this study is that researchers were not given full reports of data because of the length of follow up and the mean age at the diagnosis of psychosis symptoms. This altered the results, but still allowed them to conclude that those who have attention issues as a youth are more likely to develop psychotic symptoms at an earlier age if they were to develop the symptoms at all. 

Although both articles stated that more research needs to be done to get a better and more defined understanding of these issues, I do believe this journal article supports the previously discussed news article. Also because of similar findings, I do believe that there is truth within both articles.

References

1.Mundell, E. Childhood attention issues show links to later risk for psychosis, schizophrenia. U.S. News (2024). Available at: https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2024-10-29/childhood-attention-issues-show-links-to-later-risk-for-psychosis-schizophrenia. (Accessed: 1st December 2024) 

2.Nourredine, M. et al. Association of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder in childhood and adolescence with the risk of subsequent psychotic disorder. JAMA Psychiatry 78, 519 (2021).