January 2006
Asthma now hits one in 10 children, study finds
Asthma in Canadian children has jumped fourfold over the past 20 years, to a level where more than one in 10 kids have been diagnosed with the respiratory ailment, says a report by a North American environmental agency.
In Canada, this means 2.5 million people are affected by asthma - 12 per cent of children and eight per cent of adults, says the report by the Montreal-based Commission for Environmental Co-operation, a group created as part of the North American Free Trade Agreement.
"Asthma reduces the quality of life for individuals with asthma and their families and imposes a heavy burden on the nation's health care expenditures," states the report.
The prevalence of asthma has been increasing in Canada, the United States and Mexico for several decades, according to the report, which looks at many factors affecting childhood health across North America.
"This increase represents a tremendous human and economic burden for millions of children and adults in North America," the report said.
In Canada, asthma has been increasing in children of all ages, except for boys aged four to seven years. Boys aged between eight and 11 have the highest incidence of the illness - 20 per cent are affected.
Asthma, the most common chronic disease of childhood in North America, is a chronic inflammatory disorder of the airways that causes wheezing and difficulty breathing.
Its exact causes are unknown, but the ailment is thought to be caused by a mixture of hereditary factors and the environment, while environmental factors can also make the condition worse.
The main environmental causes are second-hand smoke, mite antigens contained in household dust and outdoor air pollution, the report says. It notes that in 2002, 19 per cent of Canadian children were regularly exposed to second-hand smoke in the home.
The illness also causes a disproportionate burden on certain populations, according to the study.
"Lower-income inner-city populations are at a greater risk of developing asthma because of sub-optimal levels of care and control, and because they may have higher exposures."
The report also recommends that exposure to airborne school and workplace contaminants, animal dander and moulds be decreased.
It advocates both personal responsibility and action by government, industry and business sectors in fighting the rising asthma numbers.
"Legislation, policies and voluntary co-operation need to be part of a concerted effort to decrease school and workplace contaminants and improve air quality," the report says.
The report looked at data from the National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth, as well as two reports from Statistics Canada, in calculating its asthma figures.
27 January 2006
http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=a7d0952a-6a7d-4145-9324-6d2c90ac744d&k=3001
Patches for kid smokers
More than 200 chemist shops across Glasgow are to start giving free nicotine patches to smokers as young as 12. The move is aimed at helping pupils quit early.
Changes to the drugs licence for nicotine replacement therapy, NRT, mean pharmacists can prescribe it to secondary school pupils who do not want to go to their family doctor.
Posters encouraging puffers to quit are being sent to city schools, as well as GP surgeries, as the health board gears up for the biggest National No Smoking Day yet.
The smoking rate in Greater Glasgow is 33%, against 31% for Scotland and 29% for the UK. It rises to 37% in poorer areas and 80% among the mentally ill or the homeless.
Now chemists are being asked to help reduce those figures.
Health workers and representatives from dozens of businesses today held a conference in the city to hear about the latest moves.
Lisa Buck, a senior health promotions officer with Smoking Concerns, said: "Smokers from 12 upwards can now get nicotine replacement therapy on prescription through a pharmacist in the Starting Fresh campaign."
The city has 220 pharmacies and almost all have signed up to the prescribing scheme, which is funded by NHS Greater Glasgow's anti-smoking campaign. Pharmacists are trained to offer advice and support on quitting and can write prescriptions for NRT, such as patches, gum and inhalers. Pupils will be given counselling and an appointment for a week later to collect their patches and start their bid to give up cigarettes.
School nurse Dawn Loudon, from Stonelaw High, Rutherglen, said: "For the first time we have something really effective to offer pupils who want to stop smoking. "In the past we could only offer encouragement from a smoking cessation group.
"Young people are very keen on technology, so having a ‘thing' they can see and know works will help."
NRT is now also available to people who can't quit straight away, with gum and inhalers now approved for people who smoke occasionally.
Health staff are expecting a "stampede" of smokers trying to quit on No Smoking Day, March 8, which is less than three weeks before smoking is banned in all Scotland's indoor public areas.
Glasgow will mark the day with a roadshow at the St Enoch Centre, where trained smoking cessation supporters will mingle with crowds.
Debbie Nelson, health promotion officer, runs the city's Quit And Win scheme, which is launched each No Smoking Day.
Every four weeks for a 12-week period there is a prize draw for those who have managed to stay smoke-free.
Ms Nelson said: "Last year 85 people took part and 31 were still smoke free after 12 weeks."
John McCann
25 January 2006
http://www.eveningtimes.co.uk/print/news/5048230.shtml
Getting enough sleep
For a variety of reasons, I’ve taken an increased interest in sleep. How much is not enough? How much is too much? When should one ‘‘worry’’ about getting to sleep? In the past few years, some important studies have shed light on this subject. Contrary to the idea that more sleep is better, an editorial in the journal Sleep by Daniel Kripke, a professor of psychiatry at UC San Diego, cites data from Japan and the United States showing that the ideal sleep duration is between 61/2 and 71/2 hours.
Across large numbers of subjects, longevity rates actually decrease as sleep duration shifts beyond this range. Those who slept less than four hours or more than nine or 10 hours were found to have mortality rates greater than those in the middle range.
Kripke suggests that the age-old eight-hour maxim is wrong (not by much), but he hesitates to advise everyone. For my part, I’ve embraced the concept of moving toward that golden mean but still letting my own sense of rest and readiness to awaken guide me.
Many studies show that children need more sleep than teens or adults. Whereas infants may sleep for three-fourths of their days, on the average, young and elementary-school-aged children need approximately 10 to 12 hours per day. Adolescents are notorious for their odd sleeping behavior, and this is actually part of their ongoing biological development. Teens tend toward sleep deficiency, with their bodies driving them to stay up later, while school and other scheduling demands force them to get up earlier than their body clocks desire. Parents and teachers should keep this in mind, according to Howard Taras in an article published in the Journal of School Health. Kids who fail to get adequate sleep are at risk of reduced academic performance.
Taras recommends screening for sleep problems, such as sleep onset delay, night waking, sleep-disordered breathing, and so on, when performance isn’t up to expectations. Many sleep disturbances, he points out, can be treated.
One novel approach to teen sleep problems is changing schedules. This was the subject of a study conducted at Northwestern University with volunteers from Evanston Township High School in Illinois and published in the journal Pediatrics. Among Northwestern’s findings is that teens tend to lose about two hours of sleep each school night but sleep more on weekends and during summer. Among the study’s recommendations is advising schools to begin at a later hour for teens (perhaps not feasible in many communities) and to administer standardized tests in the afternoons, when teens’ brains are more alert and capable.
What’s the best way to sleep? It helps to give your children a regular routine, consisting of consistent bedtime hours and a reliable pre-bedtime sequence – in keeping with your own and your child’s daily (circadian) bodily rhythm, which helps to regulate a variety of biological and health processes.
Before sleep, avoid overstimulation. That includes video games and action oriented (or any, some say) television, which by its nature is designed to keep viewers glued to the tube. Eating just before bed and ingesting caffeine, even for several hours before bed, can disrupt the normal patterns of sleep.
Thoughtful moments, journaling and sharing plans for the next day can also be a part of the pre-sleep routing as can very light stretching to release some of the day’s built-up tension.
Letting teens sleep in (on the weekends) is something parents of teens may have to work at getting used to. Still, there comes a time to disturb even that biologically-driven slumber with an encouraging invitation for them to join with the rest of the family. Then, let’s all enjoy the day!
Allan J. Comeau
24 January 2006
http://www.sbsun.com/entertainment/ci_3428277
U.S. study shows stress results in stronger boys
Populations of boys born in stressful times enjoy an advantage their whole lives, living longer, on average, than males born in times of peace and prosperity, U.S. researchers reported on Monday. The study adds to earlier findings that pregnant women are more likely to miscarry male fetuses than females fetuses during times of stress. It shows that this tendency to miscarry males has a culling effect, said Ralph Catalano of the School of Public Health at the University of California, Berkeley, who led the study.
"The populations are hardier because they lost the weak ones earlier," Catalano said in a telephone interview. "No individuals got stronger -- it's just that the weak ones aren't there."
The findings, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, also solidify what biologists have long known -- that males are the weaker sex. "That's one thing I can say," Catalano said. "Statistically, it is clearly true. Compared to men, (women) are biological fortresses."
Catalano and colleague Tim Bruckner were following up on the earlier studies that showed fewer boys are born during times of stress, such as economic recessions or depressions and natural disasters. They used data from Sweden, which has a database of birth, life and death information dating back to 1751. Demographers have certified that the database can be extrapolated to the global population in absence of more precise information from other regions.
On average, around the world, about 105 boys are born for every 100 girls. But males are more likely to die young in general, and by the time couples are courting the ratio is fairly even.
Except after hard times.
There are two competing theories as to why, Catalano said. One was that a stressed pregnant woman produces more of a hormone called cortisol, which in turn damages fetuses. Damaged fetuses are frequently miscarried. "Because male fetuses are more fragile than female fetuses, they are more likely to be damaged," Catalano said.
Cortisol often makes a male fetus kick and squirm, and a second theory holds that a mother's body will miscarry a male fetus that does not kick or wiggle strongly enough and which is, presumably, weak. "It's not in her evolutionary interest to have a weak son in times of stress," Catalano said. "He may not survive or may not be competitive for females."
Both theories predict that fewer boys would be born, but they would have different long-term outcomes, Catalano said. Either all the male fetuses are damaged a little, and the boys who are born are weakened, or the miscarriage process culls the weak fetuses and leaves the strong ones.
So they looked at the data. In Sweden, after the most stressful times such as a famine, men's lives were four months longer than in happier times. "The weak boys got culled out and those boys that survived are hardier on average. They live longer," Catalano said.
For an individual, this might be a small difference but over a population it is significant, Catalano said. Catalano said he has seen the same effects in action today. "In California after 9-11 we reported that the sex ratio in California went down," he said. "Many more males than you would expect died after September 11 in utero."
Similar effects were seen after the collapse of East Germany in 1991, he said, when unemployment soared in the former socialist state.
ALBERTA
Smoking big minor problem
Despite public bans across the province and information about how dangerous it is, teens in Alberta are lighting up 30% more than they were in 2004, alarming anti-smoking advocates.
Les Hagen, of Action on Smoking and Health, said the spike is discouraging and the province needs to step in and make lighting up more prohibitive by hiking taxes.
The province already passed legislation which took effect this year, banning smoking anywhere that allows minors.
"Based on previous experience, the Alberta government knows exactly what to do in order to dramatically reduce youth smoking," said Hagen, referring to a drop in teen smoking after the $2.25 per pack increase in 2002.
"Armed with this knowledge, we hope the government will stand up for the health of young Albertans by approving a substantial tobacco tax immediately."
Statistics released recently by Health Canada show the percentage of teens aged 15 to 19 who considered themselves smokers in the first half of last year jumped to 21% from 16% in 2004. That represents a 30% rise, says Health Canada.
Hagen said he attributes that rise with the proliferation of cheaper brands, such as Number 7 and Peter Jackson.
"The tobacco companies are undermining the tobacco tax in Alberta," Hagen said.
He said a hike in the so-called sin tax on tobacco products is the single-most effective way to get young people to quit, and for every 10% increase in the price for a pack of smokes, there is as much as a 12% decline in the rate of teens lighting up.
Calgary Lougheed MLA Dave Rodney, chair of the Alberta Alcohol and Drug Abuse Commission, said the province is committed to helping Albertans be as healthy as they can.
"If these stats about youth smoking are accurate, it certainly shows our work is not yet done," Rodney said.
Dave Breakenridge
20 January 2006
http://calsun.canoe.ca/News/Alberta/2006/01/20/1402776-sun.html
Past suicide attempt linked to seizure risk
A history of major depression and a past suicide attempt seem to be tied to an increased risk of seizures and epilepsy, according to the findings of a population-based study conducted in Iceland. Dr. Dale C. Hesdorffer of Columbia University in New York and colleagues examined data for children 10 years of age or older and adults with newly diagnosed seizures. Standardized interviews were used to ascertain symptoms of major depression.
The study Included 324 seizure patients who were matched to 647 similar but unaffected "controls," and the results are published in the Annals of Neurology. After factoring in age, sex, and cumulative alcohol intake before the onset of depression, and other psychiatric conditions, patients with a history of depression alone were 50 percent more likely to develop seizures than those with no depressive symptoms.
Moreover, the likelihood of having seizures was 11 times higher for patients with a history of attempted suicide alone, and more than 3 times greater with a history of depression plus an attempted suicide. "There appears to be an underlying susceptibility to epilepsy and major depression and suicidal behavior," Hesdorffer commented.
"We plan to follow-up with studies designed to see whether the co-occurrence of these disorders is explained by shared genetic susceptibility, and with studies that examine possible common underlying neurotransmitter abnormalities," he added.
SOURCE: Annals of Neurology, January 2006.
Laughter really may be good medicine
Sitting through a funny movie seems to be as good for your heart as running through the park, a small study suggests.
In an experiment with 20 healthy young adults, researchers found that participants' blood flow improved when they watched a movie that made them laugh. In fact, the circulation boost was similar to what's been seen with aerobic exercise, according to findings published in the February issue of the medical journal Heart.
However, that doesn't mean laughing should take the place of running, Dr. Michael Miller, the study's lead author, told Reuters Health. Instead, an "optimal scenario" might be to watch a funny movie while jogging on a treadmill, said Miller, who is with the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore.
Exactly why laughing might give a jolt to the circulation isn't clear. It's possible that it counters the effects that stress hormones can have on blood vessel function, Miller and his colleagues speculate. In addition, laughter may spur the body's production of nitric oxide, a chemical that helps dilate blood vessels.
The study involved healthy men and women who submitted to several non-invasive measurements of blood flow in the arm's brachial artery. Dilation in this artery is a good indicator of blood flow to and from the heart. The measurements were taken before and after participants watched clips from a comedy film, such as "Something About Mary," and from a distressing film, like "Saving Private Ryan."
On average, the researchers found, participants' blood vessel dilation was more than 50 percent better after the comedy than after the depressing film.
A number of studies have linked negative emotions, such as major depression and chronic hostility, to poorer heart health. Researchers have speculated that persistent elevations in stress hormones may be involved. But far less is known about the cardiovascular effects of positive emotions, according to Miller. He said he hopes these findings will spark more research into how positive feelings influence heart health.
SOURCE: Heart, February 2006.
Amy Norton
20 January 2006
Rate of sexual infections increasing in Canada
Rates of sexually transmitted infections in Canada have increased so much from 1997 to 2004 that experts are calling the phenomenon a "hidden epidemic" and demanding a national strategy. According to the Society of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, these rates have surged, despite an ongoing barrage of publicity about safe sex.
The rate of chlamydia rose by 70 per cent to almost 30,000 cases in 2004. People aged 15 to 24 mostly had the infection. Gonorrhea infections went up by 80 per cent to 4,013 cases in 2004. Men aged 20 to 29 had the highest rate of infection. Among women, those aged 15 to 24 had the highest number of cases of gonorrhea. Syphilis infections rose by a whopping 908 per cent to 598 cases in 2004. Men mainly over the age of 30 had syphilis, with a significant proportion of its transmission occurring between homosexuals. The SOGC obtained their data from Canada's Public Health Agency, which tracks all reported cases of sexually transmitted infections in Canada.
Doctors believe the rate of infections is increasing because young people are engaging in more unprotected sex. They also have the misconception that oral sex is safe, said SOGC's executive director, Dr. Vyta Senikas.
"Unlike penetrative sex, oral sex is not considered to be a high risk activity," Dr. Senikas said. "I think what teens need to especially realize is that even with oral sex, an individual can become infected. "It's also an issue of an asymptomatic disease where you don't think you have a problem."
Chlamydia, Canada's most prevalent bacterial STI, often doesn't show any symptoms and is found mostly in women. The provinces with larger populations (British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec) saw the greatest rise in the rate of infection.
Vancouver had a large outbreak of syphilis from 1998 to 2001, which accounts for the increase in its rate. But a high number of outbreaks in Toronto and Montreal also helped fuel the increase.
The SOGC thinks the rate of human papillomavirus (HPV) is increasing, but couldn't get any statistics on it because the disease doesn't need to be reported. It warned the genital warts-causing virus has no cure or treatment. It can also develop into cervical cancer, which kills 400 Canadian women a year.
By comparison, AIDS only kills 10 women a year in Canada.
According to medical officials in Edmonton, the STI infection rates in Alberta are even higher than the national average. STIs counted for 62 per cent of all reported diseases in Alberta in 2004. That rate was just 37 per cent in 2000.
Dr. Ameeta Singh, a clinical professor at the University of Alberta, said more than half of Alberta's gonorrhea cases are found in people under 24, two thirds are found in men, and one quarter in Aboriginals.
Doctors say many cases of sexually transmitted infections go unreported, so the actual number of cases in Canada could be higher. They recommend sexually active people have regular STI tests and use protection, even when having oral sex.
However, diseases such as HPV and herpes can still be transmitted by skin-to-skin contact of the genital area.
"I think what's important are regular check-ups, freestanding clinics within the universities, well-placed in the downtowns of cities so that there's easy access. Therefore, they can find out their infection status," Dr. Senikas said on CTV's Newsnet.
Canada has a lower rate of STIs, though, when compared with other countries. "We do have lower rates than the United States. We're far better than Africa and Eastern European countries," Dr.Senikas said. "What is noted, however, is that these diseases are climbing in all of the countries I have mentioned. So certainly overall for the number of cases we're doing well. But we were doing a lot better seven years ago. What we would like to do is see that downward trend again."
Transmission of STIs
Exchanging bodily fluids is the most common way to pass on an infection Skin-to-skin contact is another way of transmitting some infections. Condoms may not provide full protection Pregnant, infected women can unknowingly pass on some infections to their babies during pregnancy and at birth.
19 January 2006
Bipolar disorder more common than expected in hospitalized adolescents
Clinicians at Bradley Hospital have found that bipolar disorder is more common than expected in teens in a psychiatric inpatient setting. " In the past, mental health professionals thought that about one percent of teens was bipolar – our research indicates that if a strict definition of the illness is applied, up to twenty percent of adolescents on psychiatric units may be manic-depressive," says lead author Jeffrey Hunt, at Bradley Hospital and at Brown Medical School.
The study is published in the Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychopharmacology.
Bipolar disorder, also known as manic depression, is characterized by dramatic mood swings – from overly "high" and/or irritable to sad and hopeless, and then back again. " There are often periods of normal mood in between, but there is always accompanying serious impairment in functioning," says Hunt.
This disorder was once believed to be rare in children and adolescents, but because of controversies surrounding diagnosis in juveniles, and because few large-scale studies have been conducted, prevalence rates of bipolar disorder in clinical and community samples of children and adolescents remain difficult to determine, the authors write.
The authors say that screening patients for manic symptoms upon admittance to a psychiatric unit can ultimately lead to better treatment overall. For example, many psychiatric patients first present with symptoms of depression, but depression can also be an indicator of bipolar disorder. The danger lies in the fact that the medication for treating depression can actually have an adverse effect on someone with manic-depression.
" This research is important because diagnosis of juvenile bipolar disorder is controversial – impulsivity, irritability and hyperactivity commonly occur in adolescents in general. If these symptoms all present concurrently, the challenge is to determine whether they are symptoms of bipolar disorder, or are simply a normal part of teenage development," says Hunt.
The authors assessed a total of 391 consecutive admissions to the psychiatric inpatient unit at Bradley Hospital using a mania rating scale derived from a well-known research interview called the K-SADS ( the Kiddie Schedule for Affective Disorders and Schizophrenia ) as well as other history from both parents and adolescents.
They found that manic symptoms such as severe irritability, impulsivity, depression, and hypersexuality are frequently found in hospitalized adolescents. Twenty percent of these patients were diagnosed with juvenile bipolar disorder when information from all sources was integrated with the scores from the K-SADS mania rating scale.
This study is the first to apply the K-SADS mania rating scale with patients "off the street" ( i.e., not selected for the study ). The authors screened all adolescent admissions to Bradley Hospital regardless if they had a history of mania. Prior research studies using this scale on bipolar prevalence rates only looked at previously diagnosed patients.
The authors found that, compared to patients admitted for depression alone, bipolar patients were more suicidal and aggressive, consequently needing higher levels of care. In addition, over half of the patients diagnosed with juvenile bipolar disorder were admitted during a depressive episode.
" So you might not be able to tease out the difference between a manic-depressive episode and depression unless you can accurately test for bipolar disorder," says Hunt. " We found that the K-SADS was an effective way to as accurately as possible diagnose bipolar disorder, and to help prevent treating bipolar patients presenting in a depressed phase with antidepressants," Hunt states.
According to the National Institute of Mental Health ( NIMH ), bipolar disorder typically develops in late adolescence or early adulthood. However, some people have their first symptoms during childhood, and some develop them late in life. It is often not recognized as an illness, and people may suffer for years before it is properly diagnosed and treated.
Source: Bradley Hospital
17 January 2006
http://www.xagena.it/news/medicinenews_net_news/a14fd85ebbd38dbeddf3cd65ba2c1da1.html
Clinic Reports Dramatic Results in Treating Children
With Autism
She was a mother without hope. Diagnosed with autism, her six-year-old son, EJ, bit other children, threw tantrums and chairs. "He had no future," says Beatrice Tan, whose family stopped going to church -- too risky to put EJ in the nursery.
Now, after several months of specialized neurofeedback therapy at Drake Institute of Behavioral Medicine and medical associates (http://www.drakeinstitute.com) in Los Angeles, EJ no longer bites: he hugs. He has friends, and "we have hope," says Beatrice, now back in church with EJ and husband, Ronnie. "We see autistic children coming out of their social comas, it's huge," says Dr. David F. Velkoff, Drake's medical director. "We're excited whenever we can help jump start a child's life." A physician with a master's degree in psychology, Dr. Velkoff reports dramatic results for most of the 100 autistic children like EJ who Drake Institute has been treating over the last year at its four California clinics, with medical technology Drake first used to treat attention deficit disorder (ADD), then modified for autism.
Over the last 25 years, Drake has treated more than 5,000 children for attention deficit disorder (ADD/ADHD), he says, then last year began focusing on children also diagnosed with high-functioning autism or Asperger Syndrome. In treating their ADD, Drake staff found their autism symptoms dramatically improved as well. "Like a lot of accidental advances in medicine, we stumbled onto it, but it's working," he says of Drake's medical mystery. "We think it helps these children rewire brain synapses, so life starts to make sense."
To make sense of their surprising progress, Drake cranked up an initial clinical study of 18 patients, all children with autism disorders and poor social skills. After 20-40 neurofeedback sessions, parents reported children were not only responding to peers, but interacting with new awareness to the feelings of others, says Dr. Velkoff. "EJ used to ask, 'Mommy, why don't I have friends?'" says Beatrice Tan in a videotaped interview on Drake's website, http://www.drakeinstitute.com. "I'd say, 'You have to be nicer, talk to them, don't take their toys, share!' It's no longer a problem." "Unfortunately, we can't help every child with autism, but we've seen big improvements in three out of four children we treat," says Dr. Velkoff. "Parents tell us they keep getting better even after treatment ends. We hear, 'it's a different child' all the time. Their lives begin to blossom." It all makes sense, says Dr. Velkoff.
According to Drake's study, autistic children were suddenly more "teachable" after neurofeedback treatments, requiring less time to learn how to handle situations that once confused them. "They are happier children now; they have fewer meltdowns," says Dr. Velkoff, praising anyone engaged in the fight against autism, especially patients and their "courageous parents." "It's been a frightening road for a lot of these families, but they're not alone in this fight," he says. "We've been so encouraged by the progress we've seen at Drake. Fate has dealt these children a difficult hand. We just want to help improve the odds."
SOURCE Drake Institute of Behavioral Medicine & medical associates
16 January 2006
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/01-16-2006/0004260915&EDATE=
Antidepressants still the answer despite 'risks'
People with moderate to severe depression are still better off taking antidepressant drugs despite "panic" over reports that they can lead some patients to commit suicide.
In 2004, the powerful US Food and Drug Administration moved to force "black box" warnings on labels of some types of antidepressant drugs that young people could be at risk of suicide while taking them. Concerns have also risen in Britain over the past two years, amid a trickle of suicides some see as a link. But a new review of evidence by Scottish doctors says drugs such as Prozac and electroconvulsive therapy remain the most effective treatments for all but milder forms of depression.
Writing in the British medical journal The Lancet, they said hard evidence that the drugs could cause suicide was hard to produce because suicide was so rare and the numbers of patients in clinical trials were too low to provide examples. The paper said the "absence of comprehensive and reliable evidence for risks", as well as perceptions that doctors had a vested interest in continuing to prescribe drugs, had "eroded public faith in the drug treatment of depression and its regulation".
"Recent moral panics about suicidal effects and dependence-inducing potential of antidepressants have tilted the balance of publicly perceived risk against them, but (they remain) the likely choice for most patients." Ian Hickie, executive director of the Brain and Mind Research Institute at the University of Sydney, said there had been "near hysteria" over the suicide risk, but said the truth was that moderately ill people were still better off taking them.
Adam Cresswell
16 January 2006
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5744,17833703%255E23289,00.html
Scientists confirm what all parents suspected –
children drive you mad
THE findings confirm what many parents have secretly suspected - having children is bad for your mental health. New research shows that parents suffer more from depression than people who have no children. And the problem does not seem to go away when children do not live in the family home.
Scientists found that non-custodial parents - adults who have a child under 18 with whom they are not living - and parents with adult stepchildren who had flown the nest were most likely to be depressed.
The survey also found that levels of depression did not differ significantly between mothers and fathers. But one of the authors of the study, Florida State University professor of sociology Robin Simon said: "What is most striking about these findings is that there is no type of parent that reports less depression than a non-parent. "There is a strong cultural assumption that parenthood is the key to lifelong personal development and happiness and that people without children feel empty and depressed, but this study shows conclusively that is not the case."
Prof Simon added: "Parenthood brings rewards, but the worries associated with being responsible for another human being appear to outweigh the benefits and do not seem to lessen as children grow older." She added: "Another interesting finding is that the association between all types of parenthood... and depression does not significantly differ for women and men.
"This finding contradicts assumptions about gender differences in the emotional consequences of parenthood."
The study, published in the Journal of Health and Social Behaviour, surveyed more than 13,000 parents. They were asked how often they had experienced symptoms of depression in the previous week. The parents were also asked to report how often they felt lonely or fearful and how often they had trouble keeping their minds on what they were doing.
The study on depression, however, will bring some cheer to the increasing number of people who choose to be childless. Celebrities who have opted not to have a family are Hollywood leading man George Clooney, comedian Ricky Gervais and his partner of 22 years Jane Fallon, and the British actress Helen Mirren.
But Clem Henricson, director of research and policy at the National Family and Parenting Institute, accused the study of taking too miserable a view of family life. He said: "The study ignores the host of positives of parenting. "While the arrival of a child produces a new dimension of responsibility, there is an obvious sense of pleasure and fulfilment that accompanies parenthood."
And a spokesman for independent support group Parentline Plus said: "It is wrong to assume that having a child equals depression. "While parents may have concerns about how good a job they are doing, most are parents because they enjoy it."
Raymond Hainey
http://news.scotsman.com/scitech.cfm?id=70612006
Health seriously declines, disparities increase as
youths become adults
Can becoming an adult be hazardous to your health? A new study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Carolina Population Center indicates that may be the case, with leading health indicators showing serious declines as adolescents become adults.
A survey involving an ethnically diverse and nationally representative sample of 14,000 young people found diet, inactivity, obesity, health-care access, substance use and reproductive health to worsen with age. Only self-perceptions of personal health, including mental health, and exposure to violence improved with age.
The study, funded by the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, appears in the January issue of the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.
The declines in health indicators spanned both sexes and all racial and ethnic groups. The study compared the health of whites, blacks, Asians, Hispanics and American Indians. All groups showed significant declines in health from adolescence into young adulthood.
The report used a unique source of data, the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), which follows a national sample of more than 14,000 adolescents through their transition into young adulthood. Most previous studies of health disparities have used data collected at a single time point.
"This is the first longitudinal study to track the developmental trends in health disparities among a national cohort of young people with new findings showing a general decline in health during the transition to adulthood," said the lead author Dr. Kathleen Mullan Harris, Gillian T. Cell distinguished professor of sociology at UNC, a fellow at the Carolina Population Center and director of the Add Health study.
UNC has been the home base for Add Health since its initiation in 1994 with federal funding.
Add Health survey participants were recruited from high schools and middle schools nationwide. They were first interviewed from 1994 to 1995, when they ranged in age from 12 to 19 years, and again, in 2001 and 2002, when they were between 19 and 26 years old. They responded to questions on diet, inactivity, obesity, tobacco use, substance use, binge drinking, violence, reproductive health, mental health and access to health care.
According to the report, as adolescents become young adults, an increasing proportion have no current health insurance, do not receive health care when they need it and do not receive regular dental or physical examinations.
"The transition to adulthood is a time when people begin to solidify their health practices and, therefore, an important time for health improvement efforts," said study co-author Dr. Penny Gordon-Larsen, assistant professor of nutrition (a department housed jointly in UNC’s schools of public health and medicine) and a fellow at the Carolina Population Center.
"We need a major investment in preventive health efforts for this age group, especially in those areas that our study found were important, such as greater access to health insurance, healthy food options, exercise facilities and reduced exposure to substances of abuse."
For most of the health indicators that worsened over time, racial and ethnic disparities also increased, although no one single ethnic group stood out as consistently disadvantaged. For example, smoking and binge drinking increased significantly for all groups, with increasing disparity between racial groups over time, with the greatest disadvantage found among whites. Diagnosis of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) increased significantly for all groups, with increasing racial and ethnic disparity over time and the greatest disadvantage among blacks.
In general, the study showed great variability in the levels and trends of racial and ethnic disparity across a large array of health indicators. "That means that there are no simple, across-the-board solutions for addressing health disparities," Harris said. "Instead, solutions must be sensitive to the different patterns of health risk that emerge across population groups as adolescents enter young adulthood."
In addition to Harris and Gordon-Larsen, other authors are Kim Chantala, research associate at the Carolina Population Center; and Dr. J. Richard Udry, Kenan professor in the College of Arts and Sciences’ department of sociology and in the School of Public Health’s department of maternal and child health and a fellow within the Carolina Population Center.
University of North Carolina School of Medicine
12 January 2006
http://www.innovations-report.com/html/reports/studies/report-53825.html
Study Shows Toll Meth Takes On Nebraska Children
A child advocacy group said Wednesday that methamphetamine is having a devastating effect on Nebraska's children, and those kids are becoming victims of their parents' bad habits. Voices For Children released its report showing that meth is one of the reasons for a 38 percent increase in abuse and neglect cases. Counselors said the problem has been exploding over the last two years.
"It's a crisis that is affecting our children and youth in so many ways," said the Child Saving Institute's Todd Landry.
Voices for Children wants stricter laws for meth dealers and makers, as well as more money for the foster child-care system, education and treatment. "It's a combination of not having enough dollars to prevent them from coming into care, but then they often stay in care for longer periods of time," said Voices For Children's Kathy Bigsby-Moore.
Omaha's Child Savings Institute is one safe haven for children of meth parents. The Child Savings Institute has an emergency shelter for abused and neglected kids. A growing number of them are being taken from homes because of meth abuse problems. "I think the kids are just fending for themselves out there," said CSI's Shana Romero. "We're guessing anywhere from 30 to 50 percent come in strictly related to meth," said CSI's Sabrina Schalley. "No other substance abuse."
Investigator's photos taken from inside meth homes show the conditions some of the children have been living in. There is filth, no food and other problems. "I think meth disables people from parenting," Romero said.
CSI's care costs about $36,000 a year to house one child in emergency care. That does not include what taxpayers spend in Medicaid costs.
The state is trying to recruit more foster care parents because it would cost less and be more nurturing for the kids. "If we can do a better job of taking care of these kids, getting them into families, it's going to save us all in the long run," said Landry.
Voices For Children also said Wednesday that it backs legislation that raises standards for child care and home day-care providers. It calls for more supervised training and a better quality of training for providers. It would also help parents measure the quality of those providers.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10810698/
Heritability of depression more likely in women
Genes apparently have a larger role in women than in men in the risk of developing major depression, based on the results of a new twin study appearing in the current issue of the American Journal of Psychiatry.
"Previous studies gave us hints of two different kinds of genetic differences between men and women: quantitative -- whether the overall role of genes and environment differs -- and qualitative -- whether the actual liability genes are the same across the sexes," Dr. Kenneth S. Kendler, of Virginia Commonwealth University's School of Medicine, told Reuters Health.
In an attempt to replicate their earlier findings in a larger study, Kendler and his colleagues assessed data on lifetime major depression in 42,161 twins, including 15,493 complete pairs, from the national Swedish Twin Registry.
The investigators found that "the heritability of liability to major depression was significantly higher in women (42 percent) than in men (29 percent)," and that the genes that impact depression are correlated, but not identical, between the sexes.
"On average, the effect of genes appears to be substantially more important in women than in men," Kendler said.
He and his colleagues suggest that there might be genes that alter the risk of depression in women in response to their variable hormonal environment.
"We have pretty good evidence that there is a set of women that are prone to depression, particularly in the postpartum period and during the premenstrual phase of the menstrual cycle," Kendler pointed out. This type of depression runs in families, he said, but men don't seem to be affected, probably because they don't have the hormonal fluctuations that women have.
Kendler expects the new results to have an impact on research looking for genetic vulnerability to depression. "It should emphasize the necessity of studying things separately in men and women."
American Journal of Psychiatry, January 2006.
Graciela Flores
10 January 2006
Fish-oil supplements to be tested on children with behavioural problems
Fish-oil capsules are to be given to children with learning and behavioural problems in a new study starting today to test if the supplement improves their condition. A group of 38 pupils aged 10 to 16 at the Eaton Hall Special School in Norwich will be given the supplement daily for six months. Children at the specialist school suffer from a range of conditions such as attention deficit disorder (ADD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism, dyslexia and Asperger's syndrome.
Omega-3 fish oil - rich in fatty acids that help the brain send messages between cells - has been shown to improve memory, mood and concentration in previous studies. Sales of cod-liver oil supplements, which are rich in vitamin A, D and omega-3, have soared in the past couple of weeks after an influential report in the US said recently that increased doses of vitamin D could reduce the chances of cancer.
The study by Durham County Council will also test if the fish-oil supplement could reduce the side effects of drugs already taken by some of the children. Drugs such as Ritalin, are used to treat ADD and ADHD but can lead to decreased appetite and insomnia.
Lianne Quantrill, project co-ordinator at Eaton Hall Special School, said: "There is already mounting evidence to suggest that there are benefits of taking omega-3 fish oils, particularly for those with behavioural problems who may already have fatty acid deficiencies. This trial will be a chance to look in detail at the effect on a particular group of children with special needs."
A study last year by Durham County Council found that adding a combination of omega-3 fish oil and omega-6 evening primrose oil improved the behaviour of unruly children. Experts tracked 65 pupils in three childcare centres who were given the supplements for five months.
Fish-oil capsules are to be given to children with learning and behavioural problems in a new study starting today to test if the supplement improves their condition. A group of 38 pupils aged 10 to 16 at the Eaton Hall Special School in Norwich will be given the supplement daily for six months. Children at the specialist school suffer from a range of conditions such as attention deficit disorder (ADD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), autism, dyslexia and Asperger's syndrome.
Omega-3 fish oil - rich in fatty acids that help the brain send messages between cells - has been shown to improve memory, mood and concentration in previous studies.
Sales of cod-liver oil supplements, which are rich in vitamin A, D and omega-3, have soared in the past couple of weeks after an influential report in the US said recently that increased doses of vitamin D could reduce the chances of cancer. The study by Durham County Council will also test if the fish-oil supplement could reduce the side effects of drugs already taken by some of the children. Drugs such as Ritalin, are used to treat ADD and ADHD but can lead to decreased appetite and insomnia.
Lianne Quantrill, project co-ordinator at Eaton Hall Special School, said: "There is already mounting evidence to suggest that there are benefits of taking omega-3 fish oils, particularly for those with behavioural problems who may already have fatty acid deficiencies. This trial will be a chance to look in detail at the effect on a particular group of children with special needs."
A study last year by Durham County Council found that adding a combination of omega-3 fish oil and omega-6 evening primrose oil improved the behaviour of unruly children. Experts tracked 65 pupils in three childcare centres who were given the supplements for five months.
Thair Shaikh
9 January 2006
http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/article337422.ece
Cell phones tied to family tension
The round-the-clock availability that cell phones and pagers have brought to people's lives may be taking a toll on family life, a new study suggests. The study, which followed more than 1,300 adults over 2 years, found that those who consistently used a mobile phone or pager throughout the study period were more likely to report negative "spillover" between work and home life -- and, in turn, less satisfaction with their family life.
Spillover essentially means that the line between work and home begins to blur. Work life may invade home life -- when a parent is taking job-related calls at home, for instance -- or household issues may start to take up work time. In the latter scenario, a child may call mom at work, not to say that he aced his English test but that the "microwave exploded," explained Noelle Chesley, an assistant professor of sociology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and the author of the study.
The problem with cell phones and pagers seems to be that they are allowing for ever more spillover between work and home, according to Chesley's findings, published in the Journal of Marriage and Family. This may be especially true for working women, the study found.
Among men, consistent use of mobile phones and pagers seemed to allow more work issues to creep into family time. But for women, the spillover tended to go in both directions -- being "connected" meant that work cut into home time, and family issues seeped into work life. And people who reported more negative spillover -- spillover of the exploding-microwave variety -- tended to be less satisfied with their family life.
The point, Chesley told Reuters Health, is that cell phones and pagers seem to be opening more lines for stressful exchanges among family members, rather than positive ones.
But there may be ways to stem the spillover, according to Chesley. Employers, she said, could look at their policies on contacting employees after-hours to make sure their expectations are "reasonable." For their part, employees could decide that cell phones and pagers go off during designated family time, Chesley said. To ease the extra burden on working mothers, she added, parents could have particular days when one or the other is "on call," so that moms are not getting all of the appliance-disaster reports.
http://www.tehrantimes.com/Description.asp?Da=1/8/2006&Cat=5&Num=3
Alcohol ads may contribute to underage drinking
Exposure to alcohol advertising is an important factor in alcohol consumption among young people, according to a study funded by the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism.
Approximately 20 percent of all alcoholic drinks are consumed by individuals below age 21, Dr. Leslie B. Snyder, from the University of Connecticut in Storrs, and colleagues note in their report. When they do drink alcohol, underage drinkers tend to imbibe more heavily than adults and are involved in twice as many fatal car crashes while driving.
But up until now, there have been no long-term studies of the impact of alcohol advertising on youth.
To fill this research gap, Snyder and her associates interviewed 1872 subjects ages 15 to 26 years from 24 media markets up to four times between April 1999 and January 2001.
At the first interview, drinkers consumed an average of 38.5 drinks in the past month. Those younger than 21 years had 29 drinks on average.
Results showed that for each extra advertisement that individuals saw, they had 1 percent more alcoholic drinks per month. The results were similar for underage drinkers.
"Market advertising expenditures per capita were related to drinking levels and to growth in drinking over time," Snyder's group reports in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine for January.
For each additional dollar per capita spent on advertising, individuals consumed 3 percent more alcoholic beverages per month. Young people were more likely to drink more over time in areas with more alcohol advertising.
"All these findings point to alcohol advertising as an important arena for interventions seeking to reduce underage drinking and its tragic consequences," Dr. David H. Jernigan, from Georgetown University in Washington DC, comments in a related editorial.
He suggests that if alcohol companies were to reduce the number of ads young people see, "they would make a substantial contribution to reducing underage drinking."
SOURCE: Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine January 2006.
Large studies find no link in antidepressants and suicides
Antidepressants, such as Prozac and similar drugs, help many patients overcome their often disabling psychiatric disease and do not increase the risk for suicide, according to two large studies being published today that counter recent concerns about the popular medications. The findings from two independent, federally funded studies — the first of their kind — spurred some psychiatrists to call for the Food and Drug Administration to re-evaluate its warnings about the drugs, which have been blamed for a decline in their use.
"The take-home message from these studies is that we have treatment that is effective and that the risk from depression is far greater than the risk of treatment," said Darrel Regier, director of research for the American Psychiatric Association, a group that has been critical of the warnings. "These studies are very important."
Some other medical professionals, however, questioned the results, saying they failed, for example, to show that the drugs were more effective or safer than a placebo.
"The big bulk of the response to antidepressants is the placebo response," said Irving Kirsch, a psychologist at the University of Plymouth in England. "I don't think these studies are very informative."
Critics also said the findings indicate that most patients do not benefit from the drugs.
"These pills can be useful pills, but they don't match up to the hype we've had that they really cure the illness," said psychiatrist David Healy of Cardiff University in Wales, who added that the research could not rule out the possibility that the medications increase the risk for suicide among some patients.
"As far as the risk for suicide, this sheds very little light on that issue," he said.
One of the new studies, of nearly 3,000 adults suffering from major depression, found that about one-third experienced a full remission within weeks of taking an antidepressant, while another 15 percent experienced some improvement — meaning nearly half got at least some benefit.
The second study, of more than 65,000 patients, found that the risk of suicide for both adults and teenagers drops after treatment begins, with the newest drugs appearing to be the safest.
Regier said the new studies provide strong evidence for the safety and effectiveness of the drugs. And he said he fears that the FDA warnings, which were issued in 2004 and 2005, could lead to an increase in suicides because psychiatrists may be reluctant to prescribe the antidepressants.
"What the FDA initiated was in some ways a natural experiment," Regier said. "This is the kind of rigorous scientific information the FDA should consider in evaluating its decisions."
Robert Temple, the FDA's director of medical policy, called the findings "reassuring" but said they do not settle the issue. The agency was continuing to study the drugs' safety in the hopes of clarifying their safety further, he said.
"There's no question that many psychiatrists are worried that the public fuss about suicidality will lead to the failure of some patients to use antidepressants when appropriate. We are very worried about that, too," Temple said.
After rapidly increasing in use for a decade, the number of prescriptions for antidepressants dropped 2 percent for the first 10 months of 2005, according to IMS Health, a pharmaceutical consulting company.
Antidepressants such as Prozac transformed the treatment of depression because they were considered highly effective and safe, allowing many more patients to use them. As a result, they quickly became among the most widely used prescription medications. The drugs, however, fell under a cloud when reports indicated they increased the risk for suicidal thinking, particularly among teenagers.
Those reports led some critics to press for stronger FDA action, and in 2004 the agency ordered companies to include a "black box" warning saying that antidepressants could increase suicidal thinking in young people. That warning was followed by a July 2005 public advisory that said adults beginning on antidepressants should be closely watched because of preliminary studies suggesting that they, too, could be at greater risk of suicidal thinking and behavior.
The new studies are the first large-scale efforts to independently evaluate the drugs without using data from drug companies' studies. Both were funded by the National Institute of Mental Health and conducted by independent scientists. They are being published in Sunday's issue of the American Psychiatric Association's American Journal of Psychiatry.
Rob Stein and Marc Kaufman, Washington Post
1 January 2006
http://www.insidebayarea.com/timesstar/news/ci_3362116
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