THE
INTERNATIONAL CHILD AND YOUTH CARE NETWORK
HOME / OTHER
JOURNALS
EXTRACTS FROM
THE “OTHER“ JOURNALS
RELATING TO CHILDREN, YOUTH AND FAMILIES
— IN THE FIELDS OF HEALTH, SUBSTANCE ABUSE, EDUCATION, PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE
. . .
___
Australia: Smoking tipped to disappear by
2030
A Western Australian university study is
predicting there will be virtually no smokers in Australia in 25 years'
time.
A study conducted by Curtin University has analysed smoking trends from
1983, taking into account how many people start or stop smoking every
year.
The study found the rate of smoking in
Australia is dropping and predicts it will be virtually zero by 2030.
Curtin's Professor of Health Policy Mike Daube says one of the biggest
drops the study found was with smoking's popularity among young people.
He says if that level can be lowered even further, the habit will die
off even faster.
“This really is going to be one of the great public health achievements
of the era,” he said.
However, Professor Daube warns smoking among Aboriginal people is still
high and health authorities must maintain their pressure to stop people
taking up the habit.
Professor Daube says the information shows society is becoming less
tolerant of the habit.
“What's absolutely vital is that we don't get complacent — the tobacco
industry is waiting there to roll back the tide and if we don't keep up
the pressure, keep up the momentum, things could very quickly get worse
again,” he said.
29 July 2005
Source
___
AUSTRALIA
Illicit drug use hits a new high: 38%
Ecstasy is more popular than ever before, with new research showing one in five Australians in their early 20s has used the party drug, making it more prevalent in Australia than in any other English-speaking country.
A new report from the Australian
Institute of Health and Welfare paints the most comprehensive picture of
Australians' drug use in three years.
The good news is it reveals our smoking rates have gone down
considerably, giving us the fewest number of daily smokers of all the
countries in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
But the same research raises concerns about binge-drinking among young
women, showing teenage girls are out-drinking boys of the same age,
putting themselves at risk of harm in the long and short term.
More than a third of Australians — 38 per cent — have used an illicit
drug, most commonly marijuana, which one in three people have used at
some stage.
But regular marijuana use is at a
13-year-low, with only 11 per cent of the population having used it
recently, and ecstasy has picked up the slack. Use of the “party drug”
is at a 13-year high, with 3 per cent of Australians having used it
recently.
The government report, released today, shows the drug is popular among
young people in their teens and 20s — one in five 20- to 24-year-olds
admitted to taking the drug, and the same number said they had taken
methamphetamines (speed and its purer form, known as “crystal meth”) as
well.
Thirteen per cent of the age group had used ecstasy recently, and 11 per
cent of them had used methamphetamines recently. Overall, Australians
used more speed, ecstasy and marijuana than people in Britain, the US
and New Zealand. The Irish were equal to Australians in their use of
ecstasy, but not the other drugs.
David Caldicott, an emergency doctor and drugs specialist at the Royal
Adelaide Hospital, said the figures showed ecstasy-taking was “an act of
civil disobedience”, which made a mockery of government efforts to stamp
it out.
“All the messages of harm associated with ecstasy aren't being listened
to,” he said. “(Young people) find they can use these drugs with
impunity.”
Dr Caldicott said “1950s-style anti-drug campaigns” would never work
with the young ecstasy users.
“They are functional drug users,” he said. “They are not the 'derros'
and druggies of society. They are tertiary-educated and wealthy.”
Another key feature of the drugs report was the growing trend of
dangerous drinking levels among young women.
Girls aged 14 to 19 were more likely than their male counter-parts to
drink to levels that risked long-term harm such as heart attack, liver
and brain damage. They were also more likely to binge drink, or drink at
levels that risked short-term harm such as assault or accidents.
Anne Mitchell, from the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and
Society at La Trobe University, said the trend in binge-drinking among
young women coincided with the mass marketing of “girlie” alcoholic
drinks, often called “alcopops”, over the past five to 10 years.
“We are living in an increasingly permissive society where young people
think they can do it all,” she said.
“But this is a particularly speedy (trend) and it's gender-based.”
Jacqueline Maley
29 July 2005
___
Short height linked to increased suicide risk
Shorter men may be more likely than their
taller peers to commit suicide — suggesting, researchers say, that
various factors related to growth and development also affect suicide
risk later in life.
In a study of records for nearly 1.3 million Swedish men, the
investigators found that for every 2 inches a man gained in height, his
suicide risk dipped by 9 percent. Overall, the shortest men in the study
were about twice as likely as the tallest men to commit suicide.
A few previous studies have uncovered a similar height-suicide
relationship among men, with some suggestion that income and social
class explain the link; children who grow up disadvantaged may have both
poorer growth and a higher suicide rates as adults.
But in the current study, neither a man's
education nor his parents' socioeconomic class significantly affected
the link between height and suicide risk.
Still, the findings support the notion that factors in childhood that
affect growth and development may be involved in adulthood suicide risk,
according to the study authors, led by Dr. Patrik K. E. Magnusson of
Uppsala University in Sweden.
The researchers based their findings on records for almost 1.3 million
Swedish men who registered for the military draft between 1968 and 1999.
The men's conscription records were linked with public birth, death and
census records.
Overall, the researchers found, just over 3,000 men committed suicide,
with the risk dipping as a man's height climbed. Factors such as year of
birth, education, parents' incomes and a record of psychiatric illness
at the time of conscription did not explain the height-suicide link.
Magnusson and his colleagues do, however, point to several potential
explanations. Psychological stress and a troubled family life, they
note, may both impair a child's growth and raise the risk of suicide
later on. There is also some evidence that poor weight gain in infancy
is a risk factor for suicide in adulthood.
On the other hand, adulthood factors could also be important. Marriage,
the study authors point out, tends to reduce the risk of suicide, and
shorter men may be less likely to marry — though in this study, marital
status had only a weak effect on the height-suicide relationship.
An alternative explanation, according to Magnusson's team, is that short men suffer some level of stigmatization or discrimination that makes them more vulnerable to suicidal behavior.
Source: American Journal of Psychiatry
28 July 2005.
Source
___
Nigeria: 'Iodine deficiency causes poor
mental development'
Director General of National Agency for
Food and Drugs Administration (NAFDAC), Dr. Dora Akunyili, has
attributed the prevalent cases of poorly developed mental capabilities
and generally low intelligence quotient (IQ) in children born within
West African sub-region to iodine deficiency.
Akunyili said recent survey put IQ level by West Africa children at a
lowly 10-15 per cent as against children born with high IQ due to
recommended intake of iodine at their pregnancy stage.
“The most frightening aspect of iodine deficiency in babies and children
is the inability of the brain to be fully developed for maximum IQ. In
West Africa sub region, IQ is reduced by between 10-15 per cent due to
iodine deficiency. We all know that mental and physical development
starts from the time the baby is conceived. This is why the mother needs
adequate consumption of iodized salt before and during pregnancy so that
the growing baby inside the womb gets adequate supply of iodine for
optimal mental and physical development,” she said.
Akuyinli said deficiency of iodine in the human system leads to
constipation, still births, and miscarriages. Other defects as a result
of deficiency are dry skin, growth retardation (stunting) and low IQ.
She added that although Nigeria has achieved about 98 per cent universal
salt iodisation (USI) status since 2003 through collaboration by NAFDAC,
UNICEF, and the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON), a feat yet to
be equaled by any country, the country cannot afford to rest on its
laurels.
The director-general said it has become illegal to stock bulky quantities of salt, adding that such an era was gone for good. Stocking of large size salt she said evaporates the valuable iodine content in salt, but said packaging in small sachet helps preserve the iodine component.
Chuka Odittah
27 July 2005
___
Methamphetamine scourge spreads across
entire U.S.
The scourge of methamphetamine addiction,
once confined to western and mainly rural regions of the United States,
has spread to the entire nation and now also is affecting urban and
suburban areas, a congressional subcommittee heard on Tuesday.
Numerous witnesses from law enforcement and child welfare agencies told
the House of Representatives subcommittee on criminal justice, drug
policy and human resources about the toll the drug was taking on their
communities.
“The devastating consequences of methamphetamine are felt across the
country by individuals, government agencies, businesses and communities
of all sizes. Americans are waging a daily battle against this drug,”
said Joseph Rannazzisi, deputy chief of enforcement with the Drug
Enforcement Administration.
Meth, as it is known, can be made using
common household and agricultural chemicals and simple cold medicines
following recipes easily available on the Internet. The drug is highly
addictive, and its manufacture creates highly toxic waste products that
damage the environment and are expensive to clean up.
Much of the meth sold in the United States is manufactured in “superlabs”
in California and Mexico. However, a significant amount is made in small
labs in peoples' bathtubs, or in abandoned buildings or even in hotel
rooms.
Arrests doubled
According to a survey of law enforcement organizations conducted by the
National Association of Counties and released this month, 87 percent of
the 500 agencies that participated reported increases in meth arrests in
the past three years.
Agencies in Indiana, California, Minnesota, Florida and Ohio reported
the number of meth-related arrests had doubled in this time. Iowa,
Mississippi, Illinois and North Dakota reported increases of 90 percent
or greater.
“Historically, meth abuse was confined to the western United States and
to rural areas. However, the drug has quickly spread east and is having
disastrous consequences in rural, urban and suburban communities
nationwide,” said Valerie Brown of the National Association of Counties.
Fifty-eight percent of county law
enforcement agencies now see meth as their largest drug problem, with 76
percent in the Southwest and 75 percent in the Pacific Northwest viewing
it that way.
In San Diego, authorities have taken more than 400 children into
protective custody in the past year because they were living in homes
where there was meth use. One in 10 tested positive for the drug, with
the greatest proportion among infants aged six or less, said Laura
Birkmeyer of the National Alliance for Drug Endangered Children.
In Riverside County, California, authorities have removed five children
aged three months to 11 from active meth labs in the past month alone,
according to information supplied to the subcommittee. Since July 1998,
767 children were present in Riverside County when police raided meth
labs.
Witnesses had various suggestions on how to combat the problem including
restricting the sale of cold medicines nationally, tightening the
Mexican border, increasing prison sentences for traffickers and
producers and working with mental health providers to develop better
treatment plans.
Alan Elsner
26 July 2005
___
German tax reduces youth alcopop
consumption
Consumption of “alcopops” by German young
people has almost halved since the imposition of a special tax on the
fizzy alcoholic drinks last year, a German government drug commission
said on Tuesday.
A report published by the commission showed the percentage of youths
aged 12 to 17 who drink alcopops — typically a mixture of sweet soft
drinks and spirits — once a month dropped to 16 percent from 28 percent
since last August.
One third of the surveyed teenagers who consumed alcopops last year had
since quit.
The commission also reported that teenagers cited the tax, which added
80-90 cents to the price of a bottle, as the main reason why they cut
back or stopped consumption of alcopops.
The government imposed the special tax in August 2004 to deter youth
consumption of alcopops after it determined that the popularity of the
drinks was encouraging alcoholism among teenagers.
“What is especially pleasing is that there was no substitution with
other alcoholic drinks,” said government drug commissioner Marion
Caspers-Merk.
“We have reached our goal of better protecting children and teenagers
from the dangers of alcoholism.”
Drinks affected by the tax included alcopops like Smirnoff Ice, made by
the world's biggest spirits group Diageo and Bacardi Breezer, made by
privately owned Bacardi.
26 July 2005
___
Teaching adults effective parenting skills
best tool to treat children with serious conduct problems
Training adults to have more effective
parenting skills is the most potent tool available and should remain the
standard of care in treating preadolescent children with serious conduct
behavior problems.
That finding comes from a new study that indicates for the first time
that the same interventions used to treat boys with conduct problems
also can be utilized to help girls with similar problems, said Theodore
Beauchaine. He is a University of Washington associate professor of
psychology and lead author of the paper appearing in the current issue
of the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology.
“You don't treat conduct disorder or
delinquency just by treating the child,” Beauchaine said. “This study
shows that parent training is the most effective tool in dealing with
conduct disorder. We compared a great number of variables and there was
not a single condition where a treatment without parent training was
more effective.”
However, Beauchaine said all things being equal, more treatment is
better than less and programs that also target children and their
teachers also help youngsters with conduct problems.
“Children's behavior also is formed and maintained outside the home. So
if you work with parents and teachers, as well as give a child social
skills, you are addressing three different areas and have the best
chance of improving behavior.”
Problem behaviors stemming from conduct disorder and the less severe
oppositional defiant disorder are estimated to affect between 4 percent
and 5 percent of children in the United States.
Collaborating on the study was Carolyn Webster-Stratton, director of the
UW's Parenting Research Clinic and a professor of Family and Child
Nursing, who has designed interventions evaluated in this study to help
parents, children and teachers improve child problem behavior.
The new study combined data from more
than 500 children and their families in six randomized clinical trials
previously conducted by Webster-Stratton. It was designed to examine
proven programs and identify those factors that enhance or negatively
affect treatment under specific conditions. In addition, the study
sought to identify those children who are most likely to benefit from an
intervention since even the most successful programs for conduct
problems are effective only for about two-thirds of participants.
There were 402 boys and 112 girls in the study ranging in age from 3 to
8.
The study also found that:
- Those children who also had symptoms of depression or anxiety responded more positively to treatment.
- Impulsive children with concurrent behavior problems and attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder responded best to interventions when teacher training was added to parent training.
- Children with younger, rather than older, mothers showed more improvement. This surprising finding may stem from more flexible behavior by younger mothers than older mothers, who may have more children and less patience to deal with disruptive behaviors.
- Children whose parents were less harsh and less critical at the beginning of the project and showed the most improvement in these areas as a result of parent training, tended to respond better to the interventions.
“This study tells us where to put our
resources in treating conduct problems,” said Beauchaine, “and that we
can do the same things with girls as we have been doing for boys. We
didn't know this before because there have been so few girls included in
previous studies.
”Treating conduct disorder is not something we want to skimp on. Dealing
with the conduct disorder is the most expensive mental health problem in
this country. Identifying and treating young children when problems
first occur is more likely to be successful and cost effective than
waiting until these children become adolescents and have a chronic
history of antisocial behavior.
“If a young child has a hitting problem, for example, he or she is less
likely to grow out of that behavior than most parents think,” he said.
The parent training program used in the study taught parents
child-directed play skills, effective parenting, communication and
problem solving skills, strategies for coping with stress and ways to
boost children's social skills and manage aggressive and problematic
behaviors. The child training program included teaching youngsters how
to follow school rules, doing one's best in school, coping with
feelings, problem solving, anger management, making friends and engaging
in teamwork.
The teacher program included training in building positive relationships
with students, strategies to promote parent-teacher collaboration, the
importance of positive attention and praise, proactive strategies for
preventing problem behavior, limit-setting, classroom management
strategies and methods for increasing appropriate social behavior among
students.
Co-author of the study was M. Jamila
Reid, a researcher in the UW's Parenting Research Clinic.
The study was funded in part by the National Institute of Mental Health.
I-Newswire
18 July 2005
___
Volatile substance abuse deaths drop in the
UK
A report released today by the Division of Community Health Sciences at St George's, University of London, reveals that in 2003 there were 51 deaths in the UK associated with volatile substance abuse. This is the lowest annual total recorded since 1983. The report “Trends in Death Associated with Abuse of Volatile Substances 1971-2003”, which was prepared for the Department of Health, describes trends in death associated with the abuse of gas fuels, aerosols, glues and other solvent based products.
In 2003, butane from all sources,
predominantly in the form of cigarette lighter refills accounted for 40
of the 51 deaths. Five of the adult deaths were associated with the
anaesthetic agents isoflurane and sevoflurane.
Of the nine volatile substance abuse deaths in under-18 year olds in
2003, six were associated with butane cigarette lighter refills, the
sale of which to under-18s is prohibited by legislation.
In 2002, there were 24 deaths in under 18 year olds, of which 15 were
associated with butane cigarette lighter refills.
Deaths were generally sudden and in 2003 were three times more common in
males than females. For both adults and children volatile substance
abuse leading to death usually took place in the home.
21 July 2005
___
Parents' attitude helps kids cope with
violence
Teenagers who witness violent acts are
less likely to become violent themselves if they tend to view the world
as non-hostile, and if they have their parents' support, according to
new study findings.
“Parents should cultivate a close relationship with their kids so that
their kids respect parents' monitoring of their behavior and feel
comfortable going to their parents as a 'safe haven' in times of
trouble,” study author Dr. Christopher C. Henrich of Georgia State
University in Atlanta told Reuters Health.
In the 1990s, a series of reports showed that teenagers living in urban
areas witness a “disturbingly high” amount of violence. For instance,
one study showed that 40 percent of urban teenagers had seen a shooting
or stabbing within the previous year.
Researchers have also found that people
who witness violence are more likely to perpetrate it themselves,
perhaps because they learn to model what they see.
However, not all teens who witness violence go on to commit violent
acts, Henrich and his colleagues reason in the journal Child
Development.
To investigate which factors help shield kids from perpetuating the
cycle of violence, the researchers asked 1,599 6th and 8th graders,
predominantly non-white and poor, to complete a questionnaire designed
to measure their attitudes toward school and their families, and their
exposure to violence.
Henrich's team also measured how supportive teens felt their parents
were — asking, for instance, how often an adult was at home in the
afternoons, and if teens had a parent or guardian they felt close to.
The researchers found that girls reported more parental support, and
tended to have more positive views on social interactions. Boys,
however, said they committed more violent acts, saw more violence and
were more often victimized than girls.
Not surprisingly, Henrich and his team
found that teens who had witnessed violence were more likely to become
violent themselves. However, among teens exposed to violence, girls were
less likely to commit violence if they had a non-hostile view of the
world, and boys were less likely to commit violent acts if they felt
like their parents were highly supportive.
However, having supportive parents did not appear to protect girls from
engaging in violence, and having a non-hostile view of the world did not
protect boys.
Henrich explained that it's not clear why each factor worked better for
one sex than the other, but that both are important in discouraging
teenagers from violence.
“Through cultivating close and involved relationships with their
children, parents can help protect (teens) — at least boys — from the
effects of witnessing violence,” he said.
Furthermore, by teaching teens to think positively, “schools have the
ability to not only prevent violence in the first place, but to help
give kids — at least girls — the skills to protect themselves from the
adverse effects of witnessing violence,” Henrich added.
Source: Child Development, July/August 2005.
Alison McCook
New York (Reuters Health)
22 July 2005
___
Teen girls have healthier stress response
than boys
Adolescent girls may be better protected
against the effects of stress than teenage boys, according to a team of
Georgia researchers. In a study of teenagers' responses to mental
stress, they found that girls did not exhibit the same increase in blood
pressure as did their male peers.
“Very few studies have reported a teenager's response to prolonged
mental stress,” Dr. Gaston Kapuku, of the Medical College of Georgia
said in a statement. “Our findings indicate that females are protected
against the effects of stress as demonstrated by their ability to
maintain lower blood pressure.”
The findings were presented Sunday during this year's meeting of the
International Society on Hypertension in Blacks (ISHIB), held in Puerto
Rico.
For the study, 190 African-American and
European-American teenagers, aged 16 to 18 years, with normal blood
pressures spent 60 minutes playing a competitive video game. The
researchers measured the teenagers' blood pressure and heart rates at
15-minute intervals during the two-hour rest period before they began
the stress activity — i.e., playing the video game — as well as during
the game, analyzing the change that occurred between the two periods.
Based on heart rate alone, teenage boys and girls appear to react
similarly to mental stress, the results indicate. Girls had a slightly
higher heart rate than did their male counterparts, but both groups
seemed to be equally stimulated by the game.
Changes in systolic blood pressure — i.e., the upper reading, pressure
when the heart contracts — varied between the sexes, however, with
teenage girls exhibiting smaller changes in blood pressure than did
teenage boys.
“Girls have some kind of protection in
terms of blood pressure response,” Kapuku told Reuters Health. He added
that “people who react with high blood pressure are prone to develop
more cardiovascular disease.”
White girls had even smaller changes in blood pressure than did black
girls, the study findings show. The reason for this “puzzle” is unknown,
Kapuku said, although it might be related to differences in hormones or
a number of other pathways that influence stress reactions.
Other research has also pointed to the existence of ethnic and sex
differences in cardiovascular disease. Heart failure, for example, has
been found to be more prevalent among women in comparison to men.
Further, blacks are known to have a higher incidence of premature heart
attack, high blood pressure and other factors that put them at risk for
cardiovascular disease.
The new findings suggest there is “already a difference in childhood,” in such risk factors, Kapuku said.
In light of these findings, Kapuku
advises that patients, especially those with heart disease, determine
their doctor's knowledge of ethnic and sex differences by asking if they
will receive the same treatment or if they are expected to respond to
treatment in the same way as patients of the opposite sex or a different
ethnicity.
In so doing, he said, they can have a “better chance of better care.”
Charnicia E. Huggins
21 July 2005
___
Inactivity may be main factor in girls'
obesity
New York (Reuters Health) — Waning exercise levels, even more than
overeating, may be a major reason that many U.S. girls become overweight
as teenagers, new study findings suggest. In a study of nearly 2,300
girls followed for a decade, researchers found that the proportion who
were overweight or obese doubled over time — and declining activity
levels looked to be top reason.
Girls who remained moderately active throughout their teen years gained
anywhere from 9 to 20 pounds less than their peers who got little or no
exercise. Diet, on the other hand, did not emerge as a key factor, as
the girls' reported calorie intakes changed little as they got older.
“Our results provide evidence that physical activity plays asubstantial
and independent part in the rate of gain in BMI (body mass index) during
adolescence,” the study authors write in a report published online by
The Lancet medical journal.
Teenagers' increasingly sedentary
lifestyles, the researchers add, may be a “major factor” in the sharp
increase in obesity the U.S. has seen in the past 20 years.
The implication, they say, is that getting kids to stay moderately
active — such as walking briskly for 30 minutes on most days of the week
— could help combat the “global obesity epidemic.”
Dr. Sue Y. S. Kimm of the University of New Mexico Health Sciences
Center in Albuquerque led the study, which followed 2,287 white and
black girls from three U.S. cities for up to 10 years, starting at the
age of 9 or 10.
Each year, the researchers recorded the girls' BMI — a measure of weight
in relation to height — and used skin fold measurements to gauge their
body fat. The girls also periodically reported on their exercise and
eating habits.
Girls were considered active if their exercise habits were at least
equivalent to 30 minutes of brisk walking per day, 5 days a week — and
were maintained throughout adolescence. Just one-third of white girls
and 11 percent of black girls met that definition, the researchers
found.
Active girls generally had a lower BMI
than their inactive peers at the age of 9, and that difference in body
mass tripled over time, according to Kimm's team.
The effect of exercise habits was particularly pronounced among black
girls, who tended to gain more weight than white girls did as their
activity levels declined.
Diet did not appear to play a large role in the girls' weight gain over
time, since their calorie intakes changed relatively little over time,
according to the researchers.
However, they point out, calorie intakes were based on food records that
the girls kept periodically. People in studies, particularly white
women, are known to commonly under-report their food intake, and this
could underlie the lack of calorie change seen in this study, Kimm and
her colleagues note.
Regardless, the findings on exercise have “important implications for
obesity prevention,” according to Dr. John J. Reilly of the University
of Glasgow in the UK. In an accompanying editorial, he writes that
doctors “should have no hesitation” in encouraging exercise during
adolescence — which, besides possibly combating excess weight gain,
makes for a healthier heart and bones.
SOURCE: The Lancet, online
14 July 2005.
___
Social aggression in children is learned
behaviour, can be prevented: study
Kids can be cruel.
Everyone knows that.
But a new Canadian study published in the
current edition of the journal Child Development, suggests that social
aggression — acts like one kid purposely ignoring another child for
seemingly no reason — is actually learned behaviour and can be
prevented.
Researchers from the University of Montreal, University of Quebec at
Montreal and Laval University studied 234 sets of six-year-old twins.
Based on ratings from the children's teachers and peers, researchers
found environmental factors, such as parents and peer influence,
accounted for about 80 per cent of a child's social aggression.
By contrast, genes make up more than half of individual differences in
physical aggression.
“It's about 60 per cent of genetics that determine whether you are
aggressive or not, period,” said Dr. Mara Brendgen, the lead researcher
on the study.
“But this aggressiveness is initially expressed as physical
aggressiveness, but the environment determines whether you make the
shift from physical to social aggressiveness.”
Brendgen says as physically aggressive
kids grow older they can learn to adapt their behaviour into a social
form of dominance, like spreading rumours and excluding a certain child
from social groups.
“These strategies are extremely successful in hurting the victim but
they carry much less risk of detection and punishment.” Brendgen said
the research suggests if aggressive children can learn to replace their
physical impulses with social aggressiveness, they can also learn to
curb their social bullying.
Dr. David Wolfe, a child psychologist at the Centre for Addiction and
Mental Health, agreed early prevention is key.
“I think parents for younger kids play a very important role to set the
boundaries, and say that's wrong, let's work it out, let's talk,” Wolfe
said, noting the huge push in school to teach that bullying is not just
physical intimidation.
The study is of interest to parents, teachers and caregivers because
Brendgen says victims can feel the effects of social aggression for
months and years after the bullying has stopped.
“When you destroy someone's reputation, it's long-lasting and in some
cases may even lead to suicidal ideas,” said Brendgen.
Wolfe praised the paper, saying until
recently, childhood aggression was dismissed as “kids being kids.”
“We've always known kids ... do things to hurt other kids without
(physically) hurting them,” Wolfe said from London, Ont.
“We only recently started to quantify it, and find out how important it
was and how it can be linked to problems later on, both for the victims
and the aggressor.”
Wolfe said parents don't always realize they can do something about
social bullying, and advised getting involved to solve the situation and
teach bullying is wrong.
Erin Henderson
18 July 2005
___
Children 'conditioned to smoke'
More than a quarter of children have
tried smoking by the time they leave primary school, according to a
study carried out in Liverpool. Researchers from Liverpool John Moore's
University and The Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation carried out the
study to find out why young people smoke.
The team spent 11 years interviewing 250 children from six schools, from
reception class through to year six.
It found children as young as nursery age could be influenced to smoke.
Improve self-image
The team behind the Liverpool Longitudinal Study on Smoking (LLSS)
said they chose children from a range of socio-economic backgrounds to
take part in the study.
They found that children from lower income families were more likely to
start smoking.
They also found youngsters whose parents smoke were more likely to take
up the habit than those whose homes were smoke-free.
But by the age of 11, the most important reason to take up smoking was
to improve self-image, researchers said.
They will now follow the same group of children until they reach the age
of 16 to complete the study.
Kevin Barron MP, member of the all-party
group on smoking and health, said: “The younger children are when they
start smoking, the more likely they are to carry on, and die early from
the effects of this habit.
“It is shocking to think that children have experimented with smoking by
the age of eight, but the results of this study highlight the
seriousness of the situation.”
Chris Owens, head of tobacco control at the Roy Castle Lung Cancer
Foundation, said 450 young people started smoking every day in the UK,
and more than half would die prematurely from a smoking-related illness.
Three children who took part will hand the results to Prime Minister
Tony Blair on Friday. The findings will be presented to the Prime
Minister as the government debates a public ban on smoking in the House
of Commons.
___
Snoring puts children at greater risk for
hyperactivity
Snoring early in childhood is a strong
indicator that youngsters will develop attention and hyperactivity
problems that may only grow worse as they age, a new study shows.
“These findings strengthen the hypothesis that untreated sleep breathing
problems in childhood can contribute to the development of
hyperactivity,” said Dr. Ronald Chervin, a sleep researcher at the
University of Michigan and lead author of the findings published late
last month in the journal Sleep.
Three years ago, Chervin and his colleagues reported that kids who
snored regularly were twice as likely as non-snorers to have
hyperactivity or attention problems at the same time. Among boys under
age 8, the rate was four times greater.
That study included 866 children ages 2 to 13 who were surveyed in several pediatric clinics. The new report is based on a follow-up survey mailed to those same families four years later. Parents of 229 of the children, now ages 6 to 17, responded.
The children in the original study who
snored regularly, vs. those who did not, were four times more likely to
have developed new symptoms of hyperactivity four years later.
Similar behavior was noted among children who had other symptoms of
obstructive sleep apnea, in which there is repeated pausing in breathing
during the night that disrupt sleep and can affect blood oxygen levels.
The trend held true even after researchers took into account which
youngsters had already been diagnosed as hyperactive in the first study,
and which ones were taking prescription medicines for the behavior
during the follow-up study.
The boys under 8 who had the worst sleep-breathing problems during the
first study were nine times more likely to have developed new
hyperactivity four years later than boys the same age who hadn't had
sleep problems.
Chervin, director of the University of Michigan Health System's Aldrich
Sleep Disorders Laboratory and an associate professor of neurology at
the university's medical school, along with other sleep and breathing
researchers, have built up a large body of evidence about how sleep
disorders may affect children's brains.
They argue that breathing problems during
sleep reduce the quality of sleep, curb oxygen levels and affect kids'
behavior during the day.
Studies of small groups of children who have been treated for
sleep-breathing problems — usually with the removal of the tonsils and
adenoids — suggest that behavior may improve as sleep improves.
But while there is a strong association between the two problems, the
researchers caution that definitive proof remains elusive, and may never
be obtained because it would be unethical to take a group of children
with sleep-breathing problems and only treat half of them so their
behavior could be compared years later.
Still, Chervin said the new study is the first to show that sleep
problems come before hyperactive behavior, and that one predicts the
other, by following a group over a long time and assessing them at two
different points.
The researchers concede that they have focused on children with a mild
to moderate level of hyperactivity, and that it's not clear if the
findings would apply to children with severe cases.
They also note that more precise
evaluations of breathing problems and sleep might illustrate the link
better.
But until more studies are done, Chervin suggests that parents pay
closer attention to their children's sleep and their own.
“Getting enough sleep, adopting good sleep habits and seeking medical
attention for issues such as habitual snoring, daytime sleepiness and
breathing interruptions like sleep apnea can have a huge impact on the
life of a child or an adult,” he said.
Lee Bowman
13 July 2005
___
South Africa health dept sharply hikes AIDS
estimate
New figures from South Africa suggest that more than 6.5 million of the country's 47 million people may now be HIV-positive. The figure is a sharp jump on previous estimates and is likely to fuel debate on the extent of the country's HIV/AIDS pandemic.
The Department of Health, releasing a
2004 study of women at antenatal clinics, said results indicated that
between 6.29 and 6.57 million South Africans now carry the HIV virus
against 5.6 million at the end of 2003.
The figures contradict a May study by Statistics South Africa, the state
statistical agency, which estimated that about 4.5 million South
Africans were infected with HIV — a toll which would drop South Africa
behind India as the country worst hit by the global pandemic.
Extrapolations from data at antenatal clinics, where pregnant women have
their blood tested, form the basis for most estimates of HIV prevalence
in Africa, home to more than 25 million of the estimated 39 million
people infected with HIV worldwide.
But the method has been criticized in some African countries as
exaggerating the spread of HIV/AIDS on the continent.
Debate flared last year with a study purporting to show that U.N.
estimates of AIDS prevalence in Kenya were inflated and cutting the
projected number of Kenyan adult HIV infections to 1 million from as
many as 3 million.
UNAIDS, the United Nations AIDS agency, dismissed the study's conclusions as unfounded, saying differences in methodology could account for different numbers and standing by its original forecasts.
Figures questioned
South African officials including
President Thabo Mbeki have also questioned the severity of the HIV/AIDS
crisis, infuriating activists who blame the government's slow response
for increasing numbers of AIDS deaths in the country.
The Department of Health study said that 29.5 percent of the pregnant
women surveyed nationwide were HIV positive, up from 27.9 percent in
2003. In KwaZulu-Natal, the worst affected province in the country, the
HIV prevalence rate among pregnant women was more than 40 percent, it
said.
The department acknowledged that its latest estimates for national
prevalence assumed that HIV prevalence among all pregnant women was the
same as that for those visiting antenatal clinics, and that HIV
prevalence for all women between the ages of 15-49 was the same as that
in pregnant women. Some statisticians questioned the results.
Professor Rob Dorrington, head of the Center for Actuarial Science at
the University of Cape Town, said the department's new estimates were
“undoubtedly too high,” although he told Business Day newspaper the
mixed messages from government were complicating South Africa's response
to HIV/AIDS.
“Is it any wonder the public is confused when the same government offers
estimates that differ by between 2 million and 2.5 million?” he said.
Andrew Quinn
11 July 2005
___
Ireland: Cocaine myths remain despite
evidence
The perception that cocaine is a safe
drug remains, despite the fact that it can lead to, amongst other
things, aggression, acute psychosis, cardiovascular problems and
suicide, a new report has found.
The report, The Treatment of Cocaine Addiction With Particular
Reference to the Irish Experience, was carried out by Cluain Mhuire,
a community mental health service based in Blackrock, Dublin.
According to the report, cocaine trends
are difficult to monitor in Ireland, but existing data suggests that use
of the drug among young people continues to rise. Research indicates
that cocaine is predominantly used by young adults and males are twice
as likely as females to take it.
While the number of people who seek treatment for cocaine abuse is low
in comparison to other drugs such as heroin, it has still increased
significantly.
“Those in treatment who reported cocaine to be their primary problem
drug increased from 25 in 1996 to 155 in 2002, comprising about 2% of
all those in contact with treatment services”, the report said.
It noted that there remains a perception that the drug is safe and that
it improves sporting performance, 'notwithstanding the available
evidence disproving this'.
In fact, suicide is the cause of death in up to 10% of cocaine-related
deaths. Accidental death and injury can occur and abuse of the drug can
lead to impulsivity, aggression and acute psychosis.
In relation to sport, the researchers note that cocaine reduces
endurance, increase glycogen depletion and elevates both free fatty acid
and plasma lactate levels.
“These biochemical changes are detrimental to performance at prolonged
maximal levels. Cocaine can make a sportsperson perceive that they are
exerting the maximum effort, but the harmful combination of exercise and
sport with the drug's effect on the body are cumulative and fatal
cardiovascular events may be produced”, the report said.
It also highlighted the fact that the
controlling effect cocaine has on an addict's life 'can lead to the
exclusion of all other facets of life' and can cost thousands of euro a
week to maintain. Furthermore animal studies have shown that animals
addicted to cocaine preferred the drug to food, even when it meant they
would starve.
The report emphasised that breaking a cocaine habit is difficult and
varies from person to person.
“Treatment can be costly; the cravings for cocaine may persist for long
periods of time and retaining individuals in treatment programmes is
notoriously difficult”, it said.
The report made a number of recommendations including:
- Preventative strategies, such as health promotion campaigns, needs to be developed. Also professionals from a wide range of disciplines need to be prepared to target schools and youth clubs, to demystify cocaine use and expose the dangers.
- Resources need to be in place to facilitate assessment for those presenting for treatment. This should include a basic physical assessment and a psychiatric assessment.
- An outpatient aftercare programme aimed at preventing relapse should be made available.
The report was written by Dr Siobhan Barry, clinical director of Cluain Mhuire and senior clinical psychologist, Elizabeth Lawlor.
Deborah Condon
7 July 2005
___
Teen prescription-drug abuse has tripled,
study finds
Parents may want to spring for a
medicine-cabinet padlock, suggests a study released Thursday, because
today's teens are definitely turning into Generation Rx.
More than 15 million Americans have admitted to abusing prescription
drugs, according to the 214-page report released by the National Center
on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University. Of that figure,
more than 2 million are under the age of 17.
Teen abuse of opioids, depressants and stimulants has more than tripled
in the past 10 years. The number of Americans abusing controlled
prescription drugs doubled during the same period, spiking from 7.8
million in 1992 to 15.1 million in 2003, thereby surpassing the number
of cocaine, hallucinogen, inhalant and heroin users combined.
Substances most likely to be abused were opioids or pain relievers (OxyContin,
Vicodin), central nervous system depressants (Valium, Xanax), stimulants
(Ritalin, Adderall) and anabolic-androgenic steroids (Anadrol,
Equipoise).
“Our nation is in the throes of an
epidemic of controlled prescription-drug abuse and addiction,” Joseph A.
Califano Jr., CASA chairman and former U.S. Secretary of Health,
Education and Welfare, said in a statement. “While America has been
congratulating itself in recent years on curbing increases in alcohol
and illicit drug abuse, and in the decline in teen smoking, the abuse of
prescription drugs has been stealthily, but sharply, rising.”
Americans are popping more pills than ever, and teens are no different
(see “ 'Generation Rx': Teen Abuse Of Legal Drugs On The Rise”). The
number of 12- to 17-year-olds who abused controlled prescription drugs
rose 212 percent, the report said, while the number of adults jumped 81
percent.
“The explosion in the prescription of addictive opioids, depressants and
stimulants has, for many children, made their parents' medicine cabinet
a greater temptation and threat than the illegal street drug dealer,”
Califano said. “Parents who do not want to become inadvertent drug
pushers should consider locking their medicine cabinets.”
Girls were found to be more likely to abuse prescription drugs than boys
(10.1 percent of girls versus 8.6 percent of boys), and teens who abused
controlled prescription drugs were twice as likely to use alcohol, five
times likelier to use marijuana, 12 times likelier to use heroin, and 21
times likelier to use cocaine, compared to teens who did not abuse legal
drugs.
The study, which also investigated the
availability of controlled prescription drugs over the Internet, found
hundreds of Web sites offering drugs for sale without either requiring a
prescription or proof of age. Beau, Dietl & Associates, CASA's
investigatory partner, found that, as of 2004, only 6 percent of online
pharmacies required a prescription, while 41 percent indicated that no
prescription was needed and 4 percent didn't mention prescriptions at
all. Virtually no site restricted the sale of controlled prescription
drugs to children.
“Anyone with a credit card and Internet access can get their hands on
these dangerous drugs,” said Beau Dietl, CEO and chairman of BDA, who
compared Internet pharmacies to “predators in the forest” and “vultures”
feeding on America's youth.
The report concluded by calling for an “all fronts effort” to reduce
abuse of controlled prescription drugs. This would include a major
public health education and prevention campaign; better training of
physicians and pharmacists; and new laws, with more enforcement, to
close rogue Internet sites.
The report also suggested that the Food and Drug Administration and
pharmaceutical companies make abuse of controlled prescription drugs
more difficult while offering improved treatment and conducting
additional research into the problem.
Brandee J. Tecson
8 July 2005
Source
___
Anti-tobacco ads linked to less smoking and
raised anti-smoking attitudes among youth
Reduced cigarette smoking and more favorable anti-smoking attitudes were found among youth exposed to state-sponsored anti-tobacco advertising, according to a study in the July issue of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.
The U.S. population has been exposed to
an increasing number and variety of televised anti-tobacco
advertisements since the early 1990s, according to background
information in the article. However, given recent state budget crises
and other political influences, many states have severely cut their
anti-tobacco campaigns.
Despite early evidence suggesting that state-sponsored anti-tobacco
media campaigns may reduce adult smoking, few studies have explored
their effect on youth.
Sherry Emery, Ph.D., from the University
of Illinois at Chicago, and colleagues examined the association between
exposure to state anti-tobacco advertising and youth smoking-related
beliefs and behaviors. The researchers used targeted ratings point (TRPs)
to assess the ratings of an advertisement among U.S. teen audiences. An
ad with 80 TRPs per month is estimated to have been seen an average of
one time by 80 percent of this age group. This information was combined
with survey data from school-based samples of 51,085 students in the
contiguous 48 states.
The researchers found that among survey respondents, 14 percent had an
average of zero exposures to state-sponsored advertisements in the last
four months, 65 percent of the students had an average exposure greater
than zero, but less than one, and 21 percent had an average exposure of
one or more state-sponsored anti-tobacco advertisements.
Students in states with a TRP measure of
one or higher were significantly less likely to report having smoked in
the past 30 days (18.6 percent) compared with those in markets with no
exposure to anti-tobacco advertisements (26.7 percent). Those with one
or more state TRPs were more likely to perceive great harm from smoking
one or more packs of cigarettes per day (72.1 percent vs. 65.1 percent).
Also, students living in areas with an average exposure of at least one
state-sponsored anti-tobacco advertisement were more likely to say that
they believed they would definitely not be smoking in five years (64
percent vs. 55.3 percent). “Our analyses suggest that state-sponsored
anti-tobacco media campaigns were associated with more favorable
antismoking attitudes and beliefs among youth and reduced youth
smoking,” the authors write. “The strong associations between
antismoking attitudes and beliefs, as well as reduced smoking, among
students with a state TRP measure of at least one suggest that it is
important to maintain a minimal mean exposure level of at least one
cumulative state-sponsored anti-tobacco ad per four-month period for the
general teen viewing audience.”
Source: Pediatrics & Adolescent
Medicine
7 July 2005
___
Abstinence-only not as effective, report finds
More info on sex helps teens, doctors say
Teens need information about and access
to birth control and emergency contraception as well as abstinence
education, the American Academy of Pediatrics urged in new
recommendations this week.
“I think it's certainly the right thing to do,” said Dr. Paul Gresham, a
pediatrician with offices in Kettering and Huber Heights. “Of course,
abstinence is the only fool-proof method (of preventing pregnancy) and
pregnancy rates have dropped, but it's still a major problem. We need to
be realistic about it — a number of adolescents are choosing to be
sexually active, and teaching them how to prevent pregnancy is an
important complement to teaching them the importance of being abstinent
if possible.”
Nearly 50 percent of teens are sexually active, said Dr. Shalini Forbis,
a pediatrician at Children's Medical Center. “Given the current status,
it's important to teach kids to be safe,” Forbis said.
The AAP's recent reports state that the
most successful sexual education programs include multiple and varied
approaches, including both abstinence promotion and contraception
information. According to the AAP, research shows that programs that
discuss contraception do not increase sexual activity in teens, and that
abstinence-only sexual education programs have not been proved
effective.
A recent study conducted by Mathematica Policy Research Inc. prompts
more questions than it answers, said Earl Pike, executive director of
the AIDS Taskforce of Greater Cleveland. The research found that teens
in abstinence-only programs experience attitude changes about sex and
the risks of sex before marriage, but “it's not clear if an attitude
change translates to behavioral changes,” Pike said.
Surveyed youth in abstinence-until-marriage and comprehensive sexual
education programs had the same subsequent risks for sexually
transmitted diseases, Pike said.
“Abstinence has to be part of any
program,” said Julia Piercey, vice president for education and training
of Planned Parenthood of Southwest Ohio. “But teaching how to be
abstinent and including information about contraception prove to be the
most effective.”
Cheryl Mahoney, director of the Abstinence Resource Centre, promotes
abstinence-only education and opposes comprehensive sexual education
programs. After attending one, she recalled, “it was five minutes of
(information about) abstinence and a curriculum on contraception. That's
not 'abstinence-plus,' ” Mahoney said.
Pike said that future funding for sexual education programs “should be
focused only on programs that have research basis.”
“Kids are not being abstinent,” said Dr. Amy Jones, a pediatrician who practices in Huber Heights, “and if we don't give them the tools to have safe sex, they are going to do it in an unsafe manner.”
Stephanie Call
7 July 2005
___
Research into impact of sex in media on
youth reveals dangers
The most comprehensive review of research conducted to date into the impact sexual imagery in media has on youth, published today in the Journal of Pediatrics, reveals a dangerous lack of knowledge about how young people are being affected.
The study, conducted by S. Liliana
Escobar-Chaves, DrPH, and colleagues at the University of Texas Health
Science Center at Houston under contract to The Medical Institute for
Sexual Health, systematically reviewed all biomedical and social science
research conducted from 1983 to 2004 that explored effects of mass media
on youth. Of the 2,522 research-related documents examined, less than 1
percent addressed the impact of mass media on adolescent sexual
attitudes and behaviors.
“Every parent and healthcare provider should be very troubled by these
findings,” commented Gary L. Rose, MD, president and CEO of The Medical
Institute. “Our children are saturated in sexual imagery. For example,
the average teenager spends three to four hours per day watching
television and 83 percent of the programming most frequently watched by
adolescents contains some sexual content. Yet we have never stopped to
ask what effect all this sexual content in television, the Internet and
music has on young people.”
Highlights of the study, “The Impact of the Media on Adolescent Sexual Attitudes and Behaviors,” include the following:
- Adolescents who are exposed to television with sexual content are more likely to overestimate the frequency of some sexual behaviors, have more permissive attitudes toward premarital sex, and, according to one research study, initiate sexual behavior. However, methodological limitations exist in all of these studies.
- The average American youth spends one-third of each day with various forms of mass media, mostly without parental oversight.
- In 1999, 22 percent of teen-oriented radio segments contained sexual content. The impact on adolescents is unknown.
- Forty-two percent of songs on ten top-selling CDs in 1999 contained sexual content, 41 percent of which was “very explicit” or “pretty explicit.” The impact is unknown.
- Children aged 9-17 use the Internet 4 days per week and spend almost 2 hours online at a time. 61 percent of teens using computers “surf the net,” and 14 percent report “seeing something they wouldn't want their parents to know about.” No systematic data exist concerning the sexual content of web sites visited by adolescents, nor is there any research identifying the impact of such content.
In commentary accompanying the article, Dr. Michael Rich, a physician and researcher at Harvard Medical School, said, “the leading causes of morbidity and mortality are no longer infections, congenital disorders, and cancer, but the outcome of acquired health risk behaviors, including risky sex.”
Austin, Texas
6 July 2005
Source
___
Weary world view leads teens to risky
behavior
Many teens who engage in risky behavior — such as drug, alcohol and
weapons use — are up to five times likelier to believe they're going to
die within two years, a new study suggests.
The survey of nearly 2,700 urban African-Americans aged 12 to 21 runs
counter to the notion that teens engage in high-risk pursuits because
they think they're immortal.
“Some of them know what a mess they're getting into and think, 'Since
I'll be dead anyhow, I might as well go ahead,' ” said study co-author
Dr. Tomas Silber, director of the adolescent medicine fellowship program
at Children's National Medical Center in Washington, D.C.
Silber and his colleagues had noted that many of the teens they treat at
the clinic seemed to have fatalistic attitudes, a belief that living in
dangerous surroundings would lead to a shortened life.
“When life around them is hard, they see the glass as half empty and
truly believe that their lives will be short,” he said.
The findings appear in the July issue of the journal Pediatrics.
Silber and his colleague Dr. Adela
Valadez-Meltzer conducted a three-year study of 2,694 adolescents who
came to the clinic for various health reasons. They were then asked to
fill out a standard questionnaire, called the Youth Risk Behavior
Surveillance System (YRBSS) survey, which was designed by the U.S.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The researchers added a
question asking how likely a teen thought he or she would be dead in two
years.
One hundred sixty respondents — 7.1 percent of the boys and 5.4 percent
of the girls — said they thought they would die within two years.
The researchers found that those teens who abused drugs and alcohol were
twice as likely to believe they would die early, compared to those who
did not use drugs or alcohol. Those who used and sold drugs were three
times more likely to believe they would die within two years than those
who did not. And teens who carried guns and had been injured by a weapon
were more than five times likelier to think they'd be dead in two years,
compared to those who did not use weapons.
“This is a small number of adolescents, but they are the ones involved
in a large number of social problems, and the implications are huge for
them and the people around them,” Silber said.
Nadine Kaslow is a professor of
psychiatry and behavioral sciences and chief psychologist at Emory
University School of Medicine in Atlanta. She called the new research “a
very thoughtful study. We rarely routinely ask adolescents their own
thoughts about dying and mortality,” she said.
“Kids do engage in risky behavior because they think they're
invulnerable. But the other side of it is that kids do it because they
think they're totally vulnerable, so 'why not?'” Kaslow said, adding
that such teens often are frightened and risky behavior offers them a
sense of empowerment.
Silber said the study shows that health-care providers must address this
fatalistic world view when they sense their young patients are troubled.
First, he said, doctors must determine if a patient's worry about death
is based on an imminent and specific threat. In that case, the doctor
should recommend immediate action, like urging the teen to move out of
his or her living situation — immediately, if necessary.
But beyond that, the doctor must try to tease out the teen's feelings,
Silber said.
“You can say, 'I have a sense that you're worried. Let me ask you a
strange question — do you think you have a long life in front of you, or
a short one?' ” he said.
“If they say, 'I think my life is going to be short,' then it's time to ask a few more questions,” Silber said, and schedule a follow-up appointment much sooner than might otherwise be warranted.
Janice Billingsley
5 July 2005
___
Officials urged to speak out about ADHD
drugs
U.S. regulators should publicize concerns
about psychiatric problems in some children who took certain
attention-deficit drugs even though officials are unsure if the
medicines caused the behavior, several members of an advisory panel said
on Thursday.
Many on the panel of outside experts agreed with Food and Drug
Administration officials who said it was premature to update warnings on
the drugs, which include Johnson & Johnson's Concerta and Novartis AG's
Ritalin and its generic competitors.
Still, the FDA should not wait to alert parents and physicians until it
reaches a firm conclusion about the potential for suicidal behavior,
aggression and other problems, several panelists said. Questions about
the group of stimulants known as methylphenidates already have received
media attention, and the uncertainty needs to be fully explained, they
said.
“Empower parents to have enough information to truly monitor their children,” said panel member Deborah Dokken.
Concern about potential psychiatric side
effects arose from a routine review of Concerta mandated by law for
drugs approved for children.
The FDA received 36 reports over a one-year period of children taking
Concerta who experienced aggression, agitation, abnormal behavior,
anxiety, depression, visual hallucinations or suicidal thoughts or
actions. Sixteen other reports listed Ritalin and other
methylphenidates.
Those behaviors are not unexpected in patients who take stimulants, and
many disappeared when drug treatment stopped, FDA officials stressed.
“We are not seeing anything we consider particularly new, but we want to
be able to communicate it better,” said Dr. Paul Andreason of the FDA's
division of neuropharmacologic drug products.
The treatments for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD,
already come with warnings about hallucinations, abnormal thinking and
other mental problems. The medicines help tame the disease's symptoms of
inattention, hyperactivity and impulsive behavior.
Regulators asked the panel of outside
experts for advice because they said they did not want to scare parents
away from effective treatments, or prompt switches to other ADHD drugs
that could carry the same risk. A review of amphetamines and Eli Lilly &
Co.'s ADHD drug Strattera is due to be completed in early 2006.
“We are struggling with not wanting to appear we are not telling
something and trying to get these adverse events completely evaluated so
we can come out and say they are all the same or they aren't,” said Dr.
Dianne Murphy, director of the FDA's office of pediatric therapeutics.
ADHD treatments are widely prescribed, and their use has been
controversial for years.
About half of all methylphenidate prescriptions over the past three
years were for Concerta. In 2004, more than 6 million Concerta
prescriptions were dispensed for patients age one to 16, the FDA
estimated.
Both Johnson & Johnson and Novartis said they would work with the FDA as it reviewed the safety of the drugs.
5 July 2005
___
Snoring in children is linked to
hyperactivity
Young children who snore could be at
greater risk of becoming hyperactive later than those who sleep quietly,
researchers reported today.
Their study, published in the journal Sleep, strengthens earlier
conclusions linking sleep disorders and hyperactivity and also appears
to confirm that it is the snoring that comes first.
In 2002, a University of Michigan team reported that among 229 children
studied, those who snored regularly were twice as likely to later be
hyperactive or have attention issues than non-snorers. For boys under
the age of eight, the rate was four times higher.
Now the team has confirmed its finding and found even more cases of
hyperactivity. They found that young children who snored were four times
as likely to become hyperactive four years later.
Dr Ronald Chervin and colleagues said their findings held good even
after they took into account which children already had been identified
as hyperactive during the first study.
“To our knowledge, this new study is the first long-term, prospective research to show that regular snoring and other clues to the possible presence of sleep apnea predict future development of inattention and hyperactivity,” Dr Chervin said in a statement.
4 July 2005
Source
___
Many preteens don't see smoking as
addictive
As many as one-third of children say they
can smoke cigarettes without becoming addicted, according to a new
survey.
Although children generally had negative attitudes about smoking, the
study also showed that nearly a third of children say they believe that
smoking may help them relax, lose weight, or help people feel more
comfortable at parties.
Researchers say the study shows that children as young as 10 years old
underestimated the addictive powers of tobacco and begin to believe
there are benefits of smoking. These beliefs may put them at risk for
taking up smoking cigarettes in the future.
Attitudes about smoking form early
In the study, researchers examined beliefs and attitudes about smoking
among a group of 418 children aged 10 to 12 over a period of 20 months.
The children were selected at random from participants in a large
smoking prevention program. The families received a videotape about
youth smoking and other smoking prevention materials from their doctors.
The results showed nearly half of the children formed favorable
attitudes about smoking during the course of the study, and another half
formed negative views about smoking.
They say that smoking onset starts with a favorable attitude about
smoking and can progress in stages to regular smoking. Understanding
what affects a favorable attitude has will help experts design effective
intervention programs.
The results also show that:
- The number of preteens who said they believed smoking helped people relax grew from 10% to 17%.
- 18% of preteens said smoking helped people feel more comfortable at parties and other situations at the start of the study compared with 29% after the follow-up.
- The percentage of children who said people could smoke a few cigarettes without becoming addicted grew from 27% to 31%.
- Nearly one in four preteens thought they “would be able to quit smoking anytime they wanted” at the start of the study compared with 1 in 5 nearly two years later.
Parents are the single most influential
factor in the early development of a child's opinion and attitudes,
researchers write.
Children from families in which the parents were less involved in their
children's lives or spent less time communicating were more likely to
have positive beliefs about smoking.
Children who had a parent who smoked were more likely to think more
highly of tobacco by the end of the study.
But researchers found no proof that parents' attitudes about smoking,
aside from their smoking habits, had any influence on their child's
attitude about smoking.
Sources: Bush, T. American Journal of
Health Promotion, July/August 2005; Vol 19: pp 410-417.
News release, Health Behavior News Service.
Jennifer Warner
30 June 2005
___
Drug company rejects ibuprofen child safety
fears
The manufacturer of the pain reliever ibuprofen says parents should not
be alarmed by the results of a study that showed severe reactions in
some children.
Researchers from the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne examined
adverse reactions to pain relievers including ibuprofen, paracetamol and
Cox-2 inhibitors, such as Celebrex.
The five-year study found side effects to ibuprofen such as kidney
damage, vomiting blood and a worsening of asthma.
Boots Healthcare, the manufacturer of Nurofen, which is based on
ibuprofen, says adverse reactions are rare.
Senior pharmacist Geraldine Moses says the study was based on sporadic
case reports and was not a clinical trial.
“I think ibuprofen is a very safe and effective medicine when used
correctly and this study, what it does show, is that in half of the
cases it seems that the drug was used inappropriately — very high doses
were given to people with pre-existing problems,” she said.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200506/s1404261.htm
___
Top
___