Help with paper

Specialties NICU

Published

For my psychology paper I decided to pick a topic with premature babies. I am having a difficult time finding research.

Topic: Do premature babies develope psychological disorders as adults?

I am stumped and need help. Paper is due in 2 weeks :(

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Specializes in NICU.

That is a very hard topic. Do you have time to switch to a more broad topic? I don't know if you want to research mental illness related to prematurity, but I know there is A LOT of research on cognitive development of those who are born prematurely. Would that be an option?

:) Addy:nurse:

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Specializes in Maternal - Child Health.

I agree that is a tough topic, with probably very little research available.

I like addy's suggestion, and might suggest one of interest to me: behavior disorders in former preemies, including poor school performance, ADD/ADHD, oppositional defiant disorder. I think you might have better luck choosing one specific disorder and searching for research on older children rather than adults.

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If you Google psychological sequelae of prematurity, that will get you off to a decent start, although it is mostly child research and many of the links require registration.

One of the problems is that 30-40 years ago, the limits of premie survival were much different. It is only more recently that we're sending home these 23-24 weekers, so there aren't a ton of adult survivors of severe prematurity.

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Yeah I can probally get away with doing it on mental illness. Thanks for all the help! :)

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Specializes in Neonatal ICU (Cardiothoracic).

Or maybe examine the way married parents cope with the illness/prematurity and hospital course of their baby in NICU. (eg, altered communication, anticipatory grieveing, etc)

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