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This page is an AI-assisted Turkish summary of the study presented at the 26th World Congress of Psychiatry. The study belongs to the presenting authors; please refer to the original source when citing it.

SO016

Mental disorders in siblings and injury risks in childhood and early adulthood

SIBLING MENTAL DISORDERS AND INJURY RISKS IN CHILDHOOD AND EARLY ADULTHOOD

Children whose siblings have been diagnosed with a mental disorder have a slightly increased risk of any injury and a substantially increased risk of intentional self-harm and injuries due to assault or abuse.

The aim was to comprehensively assess injury risks in childhood and early adulthood following a sibling’s diagnosis of a mental disorder; previous studies had focused on specific neurodevelopmental conditions or injuries in adulthood. The cohort study included 852,923 individuals born in Finland between 1995 and 2018 who had at least one sibling (50.9% male). Follow-up began at birth or on the first sibling’s first birthday and ended at the first recorded injury, death, emigration, or December 31, 2023. Exposure was defined as the first diagnosis of a mental disorder in a sibling after the start of follow-up and was modeled as a time-varying variable; hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were calculated using Cox proportional hazards regression. A total of 403,661 participants had a sibling diagnosed with any mental disorder; the median follow-up duration was 12 years (IQR 8–18), and the median age at exposure was 8 years (IQR 4–13). After adjustment for sociodemographic indicators and family mental health history, a mental disorder in a sibling was associated with a slightly increased risk of any injury (HR 1.04, 95% CI 1.03–1.05), a substantially increased risk of intentional self-harm (2.40, 2.28–2.52), and an increased risk of assault or abuse (1.64, 1.57–1.70). The risk of any injury peaked during the first year following the sibling’s diagnosis and declined thereafter, whereas the associations with self-harm and assault or abuse remained elevated over time; having an older sibling with a diagnosis showed stronger associations with assault or abuse and intentional self-harm. In conclusion, timely support for affected families may help reduce these risks, and the findings highlight the importance of understanding the underlying mechanisms and assessing the need for intervention.

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