Foreign adoption warning

Children adopted from foreign countries have a higher risk of suffering mental health problems in adolescence and early adulthood, Swedish researchers say.

They are three times more likely to be admitted to hospital for psychiatric treatment and have four times the risk of attempting suicide compared with children born in Sweden.

"This is a group of young people who have a heavy load, particularly of psychiatric problems," said Dr Anders Hjern, of the Centre for Epidemiology at the National Board of Health and Welfare in Stockholm. "There is a need for better knowledge and treatment."

Dr Hjern and his team studied foreign-born children adopted by Swedes but assumed the problem would be similar in other countries.

He said people working in counselling and psychiatric services must be aware that suicide was an important problem and that the risk should not be underestimated.

Depression was the most common complaint, but the adoptees also suffered from drug and alcohol abuse and more severe psychiatric illnesses such as schizophrenia.

The scientists compared the mental health problems, suicide rate and substance abuse of around 11,000 children adopted from non-European countries, who had arrived in Sweden before the age of 7, with children born to Swedish parents.

Nearly 3000 children had been born in Latin America and 8700 came from Asia.

"The aim of this study is to describe the situation of these children as a starting point for the development of a better way of supporting and treating young adult and adolescent adoptees with problems," said Dr Hjern.

The research, reported in the Lancet medical journal, showed that the problems which occurred in adolescence continued into adulthood.

Dr Hjern said discrimination, identity problems and factors early in life before they were adopted might contribute to the children's increased risk of mental health problems.

In a commentary on the study, Wun Jung Kim, from the Medical College of Ohio in the United States, emphasised that intercountry adoption was a sound social policy and that 84 per cent of the boys and 92 per cent of the inter-country adoptees in the study were not maladjusted.

"It is possible that over 80 per cent of intercountry adoptees in Sweden fared well, which is similar to other studies in Sweden, Europe and the US. Nourished with attention and buffered against racism, children flourish in most circumstances."

- REUTERS

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