Extracts from the "Other" Journals relating to Children, Youth and
Families
in the fields of health, substance abuse, education, psychology, science
...
May 2008
AUSTRALIA
Alcopops tax drives teens to spirits, industry group says
Speaking on ABC Local Radio in Brisbane this morning, schoolgirl Larissa had a question for Prime Minister Kevin Rudd about his Government's tax hike on alcopops. "Many teenagers have resorted to purchasing strong spirits that are cheaper. How do you feel about this and what else do you plan to do to help solve the problem?" she said.
Mr Rudd said there was no single solution. "This is a really tough one because the Australian police commissioners just the other day came out and said that this is right across Australia, effectively the country is awash with alcohol," Mr Rudd said.
Mr Rudd fired his first salvo in his self-declared war on teenage binge drinking last month by increasing the tax on ready-to-drink beverages. The tax on those drinks jumped 70 per cent to bring them into line with the tax charged on unmixed spirits. It was an anomaly created though the introduction of the GST back in 2000. The Opposition declared it was nothing more than a $3 billion tax binge. Regardless, the liquor industry warned it might actually push up consumption of hard liquor.
Stephen Riden, information manager at the Distilled Spirits Industry Council of Australia, says the group commissioned a survey of sales of spirits before and after the tax hike. "Information that we've got from the Nielsen ScanTrack Liquor Survey was looking at the sales of pre-mixed drinks and the sales of medium-sized and small-sized bottles of spirits, and they've shown that while the pre-mixed drinks have dropped around 39-40 per cent, the sale of bottles of spirits at the 700ml and the 375ml size have actually increased by 20 per cent," he told The World Today.
"We think that as this data doesn't show the largest-sized bottles of spirits or beer and wine, all that's happened with the RTD (ready to drink) tax hike is that people have swapped across to buying the full-strength bottle of spirits. They're probably drinking more, and we hear some anecdotal information around that from our members' own sales data, and they're actually going to be mixing it themselves and putting themselves at greater harm because they won't know how much they're drinking."
He says the survey results show the Government's policy has failed. "In terms of public health I think it's almost certainly failed," he said. "I think it will fail on the excise-raising goal as well because the Treasury modelling, which is skinny at best, I don't think predicted this level of drop-off."
'Dramatic decline'
But federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon says the survey
results show the Government's plan of attacking binge drinking through
this measure has worked, and she rejects assertions that the jump in
consumption of harder spirits shows the policy has backfired. "I think
quite the opposite," she said. "These figures released by the industry
show a dramatic decline in the sale of alcopops.
"They do show an increase in the sale of some other products, but even the industry admits that these figures show an overall decrease of one million spirit drinks sold in just two weeks. "So one million drinks in two weeks is a dramatic decline in anyone's language and what they're showing is that these very popular products have dramatically declined. "And we hope that these products that are particularly attractive to young people, that their decline in sales means that people will not be as attracted to drinking at an early age."
Ms Roxon says the tax hike is just one measure of many that the Government will use to attack the problem. "So I would say to any parent, a measure that we have taken which has reduced drinking by one million spirit drinks, is a positive measure," she said. "And of course we will want to see the impact of this measure combined with our others over the coming months and years to hopefully instil a more responsible approach to drinking across our community."
Sabra Lane
29 May 2008
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/05/29/2259366.htm
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"Bulking up" may raise athletes' heart disease risk
'Bulking up' by athletes playing sports such as American football may lead to an increased risk for cardiovascular disease, study findings suggest.
"Our work demonstrates a higher prevalence of metabolic syndrome, an established cardiovascular risk factor, among retired National Football League (NFL) linemen," said Dr. Marc A. Miller, of Mount Sinai Medical Center, in New York. Football linemen are position players commonly of large body size.
A clustering of heart disease and diabetes risk factors including high blood pressure, low levels of 'good' cholesterol, high levels of blood lipids (fats), and elevated blood sugar and body weight make up the metabolic syndrome.
When Miller and colleagues compared metabolic syndrome rates among 510 retired NFL players, they found that nearly 60 percent of linemen had metabolic syndrome, compared with 30 percent of those playing other positions. Moreover, greater than 85 percent of the linemen were obese, as opposed to half of the non-linemen, the researchers report in The American Journal of Cardiology. Between February 2004 and June 2006, Miller and colleagues assessed metabolic syndrome factors among 164 linemen and 346 non-linemen who, at the time, were 54 years old on average. Overall, they had been NFL players for about 6 years and had been retired for about 25 years.
Miller notes that previous research indicated increased rates of cardiovascular death among NFL linemen compared with non-linemen and the general population. Therefore, he and colleagues were not surprised to also find a higher prevalence of metabolic syndrome among football linemen. "The NFL, like any employer, has an obligation to address the health concerns of its employees," Miller told Reuters Health. "Players will have to be educated about lifestyle modification in their post-professional years," he said.
Likewise, "Student athletes need to be educated about the potential long-term health consequences of 'bulking up' and should be discouraged from achieving unhealthy body weights," Miller said.
SOURCE: The American Journal of Cardiology, May 2008
Joene Hendry
26 May 2008
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=healthNews&storyID=2008
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Outdoor education mandatory for young Scots
The SNP wants all primary school children to experience an adventure activity break to prepare them for secondary school. Every child in Scotland is to be given a week of free outdoor adventure education, under government plans to boost confidence and develop leadership skills in schoolchildren. All 11-year-olds will be offered a five-day adventure break involving activities such as kayaking, climbing and abseiling, to help them to learn team-building skills before they start secondary school.
The initiative, which will be announced by the Scottish National party next month, is designed to improve educational attainment and curb obesity by encouraging children to take more exercise and to divert wayward youngsters from criminal activity. Ministers are concerned that many high-performing pupils fall behind educationally and engage in anti-social behaviour because they struggle to make the transition from primary to secondary school. Initially, the scheme will be offered to children from Scotland’s most deprived communities before being rolled out across the country.
Currently, Scotland’s four outdoor education centres provide training for 20,000 youngsters from schools, youth organisations and special-needs groups. Extending this to cover a one-week residential stay for 53,000 pupils a year would cost about £10m.
“We are committed to improving outdoor learning for children,” said a spokeswoman for the Scottish government. “It promotes cross-curricular learning as well as encouraging physical activity. Our new framework for learning and teaching, which Fiona Hyslop, NP Education Minister, will launch on June 10, will set out further details.”
Last week, Gavin Hastings, the former Scotland rugby international, said he supported an expansion of outdoor education opportunities for children. “At the moment we are sorely lacking something like this in too many of our schools — a scheme that encourages both personal development and physical activity,” he said. Many outdoor centres have closed in recent years due to a lack of funding. However, Scottish Outdoor Education Centres, the umbrella body for the sector, claims that existing facilities could be easily upgraded at a reasonable cost to cater for the new scheme.
“Residential outdoor learning is a powerful way to help prepare children and young people to meet future challenges,” said a spokesman. “It can provide the qualities, skills and knowledge that children and young people need to succeed in the world of work and to engage effectively in society.”
Last week, the Scottish Tories called for an expansion in the provision of outdoor education. Liz Smith, the party’s spokeswoman for children, schools and skills, said: “Education in an outdoor environment provides one of the most valuable and rewarding learning experiences for a wide range of pupils, regardless of background or ability. I firmly believe that this experience would enrich the lives of the pupils involved, provide them with a knowledge and appreciation of unfamiliar environments and communities, helping them to build confidence and self-esteem.
“In an age when there is growing national concern about young people’s lifestyles, and when many children from some of the more deprived areas do not get the same opportunities as their counterparts elsewhere, it is time for a new policy that will have lasting benefits for pupils.”
Jason Allardyce
25 May 2008
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/scotland/article3999129.ece
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WHO gets nod to tackle harmful use of alcohol
The World Health Organization (WHO) is set to draw up a global strategy to tackle youth binge drinking and other forms of harmful alcohol consumption blamed for 2.3 million deaths a year, officials said on Thursday. "The harmful use of alcohol causes serious public health problems," said Dr. Ala Alwan, WHO assistant director-general for non-communicable diseases and mental health.
The health ministers said the WHO strategy to reduce harmful use of alcohol should be "based on all available evidence and existing best practices...taking into account different national, religious and cultural contexts." The blueprint, to be presented in two years, should include a set of recommended national measures for states. These could cover guidance on the marketing, pricing, and distribution of alcoholic drinks and public awareness campaigns.
In 2003, WHO clinched the first global public health treaty which targeted tobacco through stronger warnings on cigarette packages and limits on advertising and sponsorship. A year later it declared war on poor diets blamed for rising obesity.
Alcohol causes 2.3 million premature deaths worldwide each year, accounting for 3.7 percent of global mortality, WHO says. Harmful drinking is also linked to traffic accidents, suicides, crime, violence, unemployment and absenteeism. After tobacco and blood pressure it is the third-leading health risk factor for people in industrial countries to develop cardiovascular diseases, cirrhosis of the liver and cancers.
"Drinking to intoxication and heavy episodic drinking are frequent among adolescents and young adults, and the negative impact of alcohol use is greater in younger age groups of both sexes," the WHO said. The number of people admitted to hospitals in England with alcohol-related illnesses has doubled in the last decade, figures released on Thursday showed.
France is considering a ban on happy hours in bars and on the sale of bottles of strong liquor in nightclubs to help curb binge drinking among youth. French Health Minister Roselyne Bachelot-Narquin said on Tuesday alcohol consumption continued to drop in her country but that dangerous binge drinking had emerged.
Health activists, including the Global Alcohol Policy Alliance, welcomed WHO taking the lead in reducing harm from alcohol and said its work should be free of industry influence.
The Global Alcohol Producers Group, whose 16 members include Bacardi-Martini, Constellation Brands, the world's largest alcoholic drinks group Diageo, Dutch brewer Heineken International, and Pernod-Ricard, said that the WHO resolution was "balanced and constructive". The group is committed to working with WHO in "reducing irresponsible and inappropriate consumption," it said.
Stephanie Nebehay
22 May 2008
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UK
Record numbers are treated in hospital for alcohol problems
Almost 5,000 young people under 18, received emergency treatment for alcohol abuse last year as hospitals admitted record numbers of patients with drink-related problems.
Alarm over levels of binge drinking were reinforced by figures showing twice as many people were suffering mental illness caused by alcohol or liver damage than a decade ago. As the National Health Service warned that it faced an "increasing burden" from the effects of alcohol, the Government faced calls to take fresh action against problem drinking.
The number of alcohol-related admissions to NHS hospitals in England rose from 193,637 in 2005-06 to 207,788 in 2006-07, an increase of 7 per cent in just one year. Last year's total was more than double the 93,459 figure for 1995-96, according to the report from the NHS Information Centre for health and social care. More than two-thirds of patients were male and 4,888 of them were under the age of 18.
A total of 57,142 people were admitted with a condition primarily caused by drink. The largest group of 40,872 was suffering mental and behavioural disorders, including acute intoxication. There were 14,668 cases of alcoholic liver disease. Doctors also prescribed 112,267 prescription items for drugs for treating dependency on drink in 2007, an increase of 20 per cent in four years. The report found that 69 per cent of people were aware there were guidelines on alcohol consumption, but 40 per cent of them did not know what they were.
Professor Ian Gilmore, the president of the Royal College of Physicians, said the "epidemic" was being driven by the cut-price alcohol on sale in supermarkets and off-licences. He said: "We are drinking more as a nation year on year and we are seeing the health damage from that. It is costing the NHS literally billions of pounds of precious resources. It is not just those that are drunk rolling into A and E. We are talking about patients with complex liver disease, where cirrhosis deaths have doubled over the same period of time." He told Radio 4's PM programme: "It's not just a trend, it's a tsunami."
Tim Straughan, the chief executive of the NHS Information Centre, said: "These rises paint a worrying picture about the relationship between the population and the bottle."
A spokesman for Alcohol Concern said: "[These figures] confirm everything we have heard from the frontline staff who deal with the after effects of heavy drinking." He said he was worried by the public ignorance over recommended limits and called on ministers to "shape a response to tackle the problem".
Nigel Morris
23 May 2008
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TENNESSEE
Celebrating mentors: A new group of foster care heroes
In 2007, Gov. Bredesen called for 250 volunteers to mentor older foster children in the child welfare system. Many of these teenagers have spent years in the system and will soon face leaving custody without being adopted or reunited with their birth families. Studies show that the support, guidance and one-on-one attention from mentors boosts the chances that at-risk teens will make successful transitions to the adult world.
In its first year, the initiative — a program of the Governor's Children's Cabinet operated by Youth Villages in a partnership with the Department of Children's Services — has exceeded all expectations. Across the state, 300 mentors have been paired with foster children, exceeding the initial goal by 20 percent.
The Governor's Mentoring Initiative provides an avenue for ordinary Tennesseans to join in the challenge of making a difference in the lives of foster children. Under the leadership of Gov. Bredesen and Department of Children's Services Commissioner Viola Miller, the state has made great strides in improving the lives of our most vulnerable children and families. But there are still thousands of children in foster care in Tennessee who need positive adult role models and one-on-one attention. While life circumstances make it impossible for everyone to be a foster parent, anyone with a generous spirit and just a few spare hours a week can be a mentor.
This is how some people are making a difference across Tennessee:
We all know how busy teachers are, but Nashville's Jamie Sumner still finds time to change a child's life. She mentors Rebecca, who lives in a group home. These last few months have been difficult for Rebecca who just found out that she won't be returning to her family. Her mentor has been the bright spot in her life. The two go on outings together — to eat, to the movies. Recently, the two shopped for a costume that Rebecca will wear in her school's spring play.
Charlane Relford, a graduate student in Knoxville, became a mentor to Sharday, a teenage foster girl. Redford is helping her mentee set goals for the future and wants Sharday to know that she has a dependable friend that she can always rely on.
Carl Barton, a small business owner in Memphis, had always enjoyed helping children as a scout master and youth group leader. But he wanted to make even more of a difference by helping a child who really needed a mentor. Barton says the wonderful thing about being in the governor's program is that he can really see the difference he's making.
Several of the governor's volunteers have been moved to do more than just mentor the children they've met through the program. Sarah and Jeff Garrett in West Tennessee started out as mentors, but now have taken the classes to be foster parents. In East Tennessee, a couple plan to adopt their mentee who is now receiving help at a group home. As with mentors, caring foster and adoptive parents are needed statewide.
As a group, the mentors say they've gained much more from the mentoring experience than they've given. This month, we are celebrating the impact that these mentors have had on children across the state; we are also looking for more people who would like to enrich their own lives, while they help a teen get a good start toward a better future. Youth Villages and the Department of Children's Services would like to double the number of mentors in the program's second year. Right now, mentors are needed to help foster children in almost every town in Tennessee.
To become a mentor, candidates must be at least 21 years old, pass a background check, complete a short interview and training session. To learn more about becoming a mentor, go to www.youthvillages.org/mentor, or call your nearest Youth Villages office or toll-free 1-866-519-LIFT (5438)
This month, I urge you to take Gov. Bredesen's Challenge. Think about all the ways you use your free time. Many of us wile away so much of it watching television or surfing the web. Isn't it time to do more with your life? Becoming a mentor will change a child's life — and yours, too.
Patrick Lawler
20 May 2008
http://www.tennessean.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080520/OPINION03/805200382/1008/OPINION01
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SCOTLAND
Parents 'must take blame for unruly children'
Parents must stop blaming teachers for the ills of society and take responsibility for the behaviour of their children, a senior educationalist has said. Anne Ballinger, president of the Scottish Secondary Teachers' Association (SSTA), warned that parents were increasingly unwilling to accept culpability for the poor behaviour of youngsters.
Speaking at the SSTA annual congress yesterday, she said: "An increasing amount of time is taken up in schools dealing with pupils who assert their rights, and their parents who demand action against teachers depriving their little angel of his rights. At the same time, some local authorities are giving in to the 'I have rights' argument and instructing schools not to confront the problem but to appease complaining pupils."
She defended the right of parents to complain but said there was a growing number who consistently complain monthly about the same teachers. She said: "The child ends up moving from school to school consistently complaining about each one. "And when the investigation into a complaint finds no evidence, they complain to higher up in the local authority until the same alleged issue is investigated several times. "It is very stressful for the teachers involved."
She called on councils to give teachers more backing and for some kind of penalty for parents who make consistent malicious complaints.
She said: "Teachers do not have sole responsibility for the education of young people about either rights or responsibilities. Prime responsibility lies with parents and with wider society. Parents have a duty to provide their children with a moral code, of which this is only one small part, and society has a responsibility to provide examples of good behaviour."
Sue Palmer, an expert in child development and author of the book Toxic Childhood, said teachers were not as respected as they once were. And she said consumer culture had taught both parents and children they had rights, but had not reinforced the accompanying responsibilities. She said: "All the research shows that parents have to set firm boundaries. If they don't do that, it is very difficult for schools because teachers then have to build boundaries and deal with the rights of each child."
David Eaglesham, general secretary of the SSTA confirmed it was a growing problem. He said: "If children are allowed to go through life constantly blaming others then it will all come crashing down eventually."
Fiona McLeod
17 May 2008
http://news.scotsman.com/scotland/Parents-39must-take-blame-for.4094079.jp
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Mothers' depression linked to young children's injuries
Infants and toddlers whose mothers are severely depressed are almost three times more likely to suffer accidental injuries than other children in the same age group, according to a new study. The study's findings, published May 14 in the Advanced Access edition of the Journal of Pediatric Psychology, suggest that proper treatment for depression would improve not only the mothers' health, but the health of young children as well.
Prior studies have shown that mothers who reported symptoms consistent with clinical depression had children who experienced a significant number of accidental injuries between the ages 3 months to 2 years.
In his study, UAB psychologist David Schwebel, Ph.D., director of the UAB Youth Safety Lab, examined the difference between mothers with severe, chronic depression and those who were moderately depressed as their children grew from birth to first grade.
A likely cause for the link between severe maternal depression and young children's injury risk is that chronically depressed mothers may not appropriately safeguard the physical environments that children engage in, Schwebel said. Another cause may be that symptoms of depression include inattention, poor concentration and irritability, which "might lead to poor or inconsistent supervision and enforcement of safety-related rules," he said.
Schwebel used a sample of 1,364 mothers included in the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care. The mothers were periodically asked to list all their children's injuries that had required professional medical treatment. Also, on four occasions during the study, the mothers were asked to rate how often they experienced symptoms of depression. Only 2.5 percent of the mothers in the sample reported severe, clinical depression and 15.5 percent reported being moderately depressed. The researchers found that young children, from birth to 3 years, whose mothers suffered severe, chronic depression, were three times more likely to experience accidental injuries than infants and toddlers whose mothers were only moderately depressed.
The link between severe, chronic depression in mothers and injuries in young children remained consistent even when taking into account the families' socio-economic status, parenting styles, and the children's sex, temperament and behavior. However, when children grew older, from age 3 to first grade, there was little difference in the injury rates of those whose mothers suffered from severe depression and those who reported being moderately depressed when the children were toddlers.
Although the study did not address why the older children fared better, Schwebel said older children often begin making their own decisions about whether to act in safe or dangerous ways. "Therefore, parents matter a little less - and in particular, inadequate supervision by a depressed mother might not influence the child's safety as much as it does during the toddler years."
Future research should consider the environment in which children are injured and the ages at which children are most susceptible to accidental injuries when supervised by mothers who have depression. The various symptoms of maternal depression such as anger and irritability also should be considered, Schwebel said.
University of Alabama at Birmingham (2008, May 15). Mothers' Depression Linked To Young Children's Injuries. ScienceDaily. Retrieved May 15, 2008, from http://www.sciencedaily.com /releases/2008/05/080514154700.htm
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080514154700.htm
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Study: Marijuana may up heart attack, stroke risk
Heavy marijuana use can boost blood levels of a particular protein, perhaps raising a person's risk of a heart attack or stroke, U.S. government researchers said on Tuesday.
Dr. Jean Lud Cadet of the National Institute on Drug Abuse, part of the National Institutes of Health, said the findings point to another example of long-term harm from marijuana. But marijuana activists expressed doubt about the findings. Cadet said a lot of previous research has focused on the effects of marijuana on the brain. His team looked elsewhere in the body, measuring blood protein levels in 18 long-term, heavy marijuana users and 24 other people who did not use the drug.
Levels of a protein called apolipoprotein C-III were found to be 30 percent higher in the marijuana users compared to the others. This protein is involved in the body's metabolism of triglycerides -- a type of fat found in the blood -- and higher levels cause increased levels of triglycerides, Cadet added. High levels of triglycerides can contribute to hardening of the arteries or thickening of the artery walls, raising the risk of stroke, heart attack and heart disease. The study did not look at whether the heavy marijuana users actually had heart disease.
"Chronic marijuana use is not only causing people to get high, it's actually causing long-term adverse effects in patients who use too much of the drug," Cadet, whose study is in the journal Molecular Psychiatry, said in a telephone interview. "Chronic marijuana abuse is not so benign."
The marijuana users in the study averaged smoking 78 to 350 marijuana cigarettes per week, based on self-reported drug history, the researchers said. The researchers said the active ingredient in marijuana, known as THC, seems to overstimulate marijuana receptors in the liver, leading to overproduction of the protein.
Raising future risk
Cadet said higher levels of the protein in marijuana users
could raise future risk for cardiac abnormalities, blood flow problems,
heart attack and stroke.
People with major medical or psychiatric illness, alcohol dependency and other drug use such as cocaine or heroin were excluded from the study.
A U.S. group supporting legal sales and regulation of marijuana disputed the findings. Marijuana Policy Project spokesman Bruce Mirken said, for example, the study involved people who were extremely heavy users. "I think the low end was 78 joints a week. That's 10 or 11 joints a day," Mirken said in a telephone interview. "We're talking about people who are stoned all the time. We're talking about the marijuana equivalent of the guy in the alley clutching a bottle of cheap wine. If you do anything to that level of excess, it might well have some untoward effects, whether it's marijuana or wine or broccoli," Mirken added.
Cadet's team said the findings suggest long-term harm from marijuana beyond issues such as impaired learning, poor memory retention and retrieval and perceptual abnormalities. But Mirken said: "Even if you take this finding at face value, it's not at all clear that it has any relevance to the real world because there is still no data showing higher rates of mortality among marijuana smokers. If this was a significant cause of cardiovascular disease, where are the bodies?"
Will Dunham
12 May 2008
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More than 2 million U.S. youths depressed: study
More than 2 million U.S. teenagers have suffered a serious bout of depression in the past year, including nearly 13 percent of girls, according to a federal government survey released on Tuesday. On average, 8.5 percent of adolescents aged 12 to 17 described having had a major depressive episode in the previous year, the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration reported. But there were "striking differences" by sex, with 12.7 percent of girls and 4.6 percent of boys affected.
Depression is the leading cause of suicide, which in turn is the third-leading cause of death for 15- to 24-year-olds in the United States.
"Combined 2004 to 2006 data show that rates of past year major depressive episode among youths aged 12 to 17 generally increased with increasing age," the researchers wrote. Researchers at SAMHSA and RTI International in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, prepared the report using data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health.
More than 67,700 youths aged 12 to 17 answered questions about mood and depression. They were also asked to rate how depression affected them using the Sheehan Disability Scale, which measures impact on family, friends, chores at home, work and school. They defined a major depressive episode as two weeks or longer of depressed mood or loss of interest or pleasure, and at least four other symptoms such as problems with sleep, energy, concentration or self-image. Nearly half of the teenagers who had major depression said it severely impaired their ability to function in at least one of the areas on the disability scale. The worst cases were unable to carry out normal activities for an average of 58 days in the past year.
"Fortunately, depression responds very well to early intervention and treatment," SAMHSA Administrator Terry Cline said in a statement. "Parents concerned about their child's mental health should seek help with the same urgency as with any other medical condition. Appropriate mental health care can help their child recover and thrive."
Reuters Health
13 May 2008
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Peer pressure, the new weapon against teen smoking
Enrolling an influential student to convey an anti-smoking message to schoolmates is a valuable way of getting youngsters to say no to cigarettes, a British study suggests.
The experiment was launched by researchers in the face of evidence that traditional posters, ads and comic strips telling young people about the hazards of smoking are nowhere near as effective as peer pressure for making cigarettes unfashionable. The test covered 59 schools in western England and Wales, with 11,000 students aged 12 to 13.
Twenty-nine of the schools were asked to carry out their normal anti-smoking education, thus providing a comparison, or control, for 30 other schools where researchers carried out the peer-pressure project, known as ASSIST. The programme unfolded in several phases.
First, the students were asked to nominate influential schoolmates in their year group, and these individuals were invited to a recruitment meeting where the researchers explained the purpose of being a "peer supporter." After gaining their parent's consent, the peer supporters took part in a two-day training event held outside of school, where they learned about the risks of smoking and the economic benefits of stopping. They also developed skills in communication, conflict negotiation and resolution and understanding self-esteem. The training was beefed up in four school-based sessions.
Over the following 10 weeks, the "peer supporters" were asked to have conversations with others in their year group about the benefits of not smoking. In schools were the ASSIST programme was tried, students were 25 percent less likely to take up regular smoking immediately after the intervention as compared to the control group. The success rate gradually reduced over time, though. After two years, the reduction was 15 percent.
The study, which appears on Saturday in the British journal The Lancet, is headed by Rona Campbell of the University of Bristol, western England, and Laurence Moore, of Cardiff University in Wales.
They say the ASSIST programme was popular among pupils and staff in the schools where it was tried, and argue the results clamour for a shift in thinking when it comes to tackling smoking. Anti-smoking campaigns are targeted overwhelmingly at cessation, rather than prevention, and are focussed chiefly at adults rather than youngsters.
Worldwide, 9.5 percent of students aged between 13-15 smoke cigarettes, and the highest rate -- 19.1 percent -- is in European countries, according to a 2006 study.
The same paper estimated that deaths from smoking worldwide would probably exceed 10 million by 2020.
AFP
10 May 2008
http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jTYFyoWPDrkFQvKMMtnO2tDlnFaQ
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Abuse changes brains of
suicide victims
Suicide victims who were abused as children have clear genetic changes
in their brains, Canadian researchers reported on Tuesday in a finding
they said shows neglect can cause biological effects. The findings offer
potential ways to find people at high risk of suicide, and perhaps to
treat them and prevent future suicides. And, the researchers said, they
also offer insights into how neglect and abuse can perpetuate unhealthy
behavior through the generations.
Moshe Szyf of McGill University in Montreal and colleagues studied the
brains of 18 men who committed suicide and who were also abused or
neglected as children, and compared them to 12 men who also died
suddenly but from other causes, and who were not abused, although some
had various psychiatric problems such as anxiety disorders.
They found changes in the genetic material of all 18 suicide victims.
The changes were not in the genes themselves, but in the ribosomal RNA,
which is the genetic material that makes proteins that in turn make
cells function. These changes involved a chemical process called
methylation, a so-called epigenetic change involving the processes of
turning genes on and off, they reported in the Public Library of
Science journal PLoS ONE, available at
http://www.plosone.org/doi/pone.0002085
"The big remaining
questions are whether scientists could detect similar changes in blood
DNA -- which could lead to diagnostic tests -- and whether we could
design interventions to erase these differences in epigenetic markings,"
Szyf said in a statement.
Dr. Eric Nestler of the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School
in Dallas said both drugs and psychotherapy may act to reverse some of
these changes.
Changing the brain
"Ultimately we believe that a person who gets better from psychotherapy
is inducing changes in the brain," Nestler told reporters at a meeting
of the American Psychiatric Association in Washington where similar
research was discussed.
Szyf's colleague, Michael Meaney, has shown in animals that parental
abuse and neglect can affect the brains and behavior of offspring. He
has studied the brains of rats, for whom parental care can be
demonstrated in how much the mother grooms her pups. "You can put two
rats on a table and tell which one is raised by a low-licking mother.
The one reared by a low-licking mother is more nervous, and fatter,"
Meaney said in an interview at the Psychiatric Association meeting.
Images of the brain cells of the rats show the brain cells of
low-licking mothers have fewer dendrites. These are the strands that
help one neuron communicate with another. Meaney, who also worked on the
suicide study, said the research, taken together, demonstrates how early
experiences can cause physical changes in the brain. He said female rats
reared by low-licking mothers reached puberty earlier, meaning they had
more offspring.
Similar findings are true of humans, who often have children at younger
ages when times are stressful. The best way to pass along genes in
uncertain times is to have more children, he said.
Maggie Fox
6 May 2008
http://today.reuters.com/news/articlenews.aspx?type=healthNews&storyID=2008-05-07T014659Z_01_N06469665_RTRUKOC_0_US-SUICIDE-ABUSE.xml
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McGill study links breastfeeding to increased intelligence
Prolonged and exclusive nursing improves children’s cognitive development
The largest randomized study of breastfeeding ever conducted reports that breastfeeding raises children’s IQs and improves their academic performance, a McGill researcher and his team have found.
In an article titled, Breastfeeding and Child Cognitive Development, published in the current issue of the Archives of General Psychiatry, Dr. Michael S. Kramer, Scientific Director of the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), Institute of Human Development, Child and Youth Health (IHDCYH), reports the results from following the same group of 14,000 children for 6.5 years.
"Our study provides the strongest evidence to date that prolonged and exclusive breastfeeding makes kids smarter" said Kramer, a Professor of Pediatrics and of Epidemiology & Biostatistics in the McGill University Faculty of Medicine and lead investigator in the study.
Kramer and his colleagues evaluated the children in 31 Belarusian hospitals and clinics. Half the mothers were exposed to an intervention that encouraged prolonged and exclusive breastfeeding. The remaining half continued their usual maternity hospital and outpatient pediatric care and follow-up. This allowed the researchers to measure the effect of breastfeeding on the children’s cognitive development without the results being biased by differences in factors such as the mother’s intelligence or her way of interacting with her baby.
The children’s cognitive ability was assessed by IQ tests administered by the children’s pediatricians and by their teachers’ ratings of their academic performance in reading, writing, mathematics and other subjects. Both sets of measures were significantly higher in the group randomized to the breastfeeding promotion intervention.
"The effect of breastfeeding on brain development and intelligence has long been a popular and hotly debated topic,” says Dr. Kramer. "While most studies have been based on association, however, we can now make a causal inference between breastfeeding and intelligence – because of the randomized design of our study.”
The study was funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research
Press release: WebWire
6 May 2008
http://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=64898
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Benefits adults, but kids appear to suffer
Study of universal day care paints mixed picture
Universal day care, the recurring dream of working parents everywhere, benefits adults economically but may burden young children with health and behavior problems, according to an MIT economist's study of a highly subsidized childcare program in Quebec.
Working with colleagues at two Canadian universities, MIT Professor Jonathan Gruber studied the impact of Quebec's childcare program over a decade, beginning with the provincial government's move in 1997 to subsidize universal day care for 4-year-olds and kindergarten for 5- year-olds. By 2000, the program included infants to 5-year-olds. In their study, which has been issued as a working paper by the National Bureau of Economic Research, the researchers focused on changes in families' use of day care; the rate of mothers' return or entry into the work force and the effects of day care on children.
"The Quebec Family Policy was a major government innovation. Its 'five-dollar-a-day' plan has given us a rare experimental environment for analyzing the effects of publicly-financed childcare," says Gruber, professor of economics.
Their first finding falls in the "if you build it, they will come" category: The introduction of universal childcare subsidies led to a 14 percent increase in the proportion of 4-year-olds enrolled in government centers. Other age groups' use of the centers increased as well. The researchers' second finding presented a puzzle economists relish. The number of married women (the study only used data on married women) participating in the labor force increased by almost 8 percent--a sizable increase but no match for the 14 percent increase in 4-year-olds in day care. So what accounts for the shortfall of workers or the big rush of kids?
"The new policy did more than enable some mothers to go to work. It also enabled all families--including those who use daycare for lifestyle reasons--to replace informal arrangements with subsidized care. We found the number of mothers who went to work was not enough to offset the costs of the childcare subsidies," says Gruber. Those costs are still borne by the government. Other costs are borne by the children themselves, Gruber and his colleagues note in their summary of the effects of the Quebec childcare policy.
Their analysis of the well being of children in daycare, based on data from Canada's National Longitudinal Survey of Children and Youth (NLSCY), produced a dispiriting picture. The researchers found consistent and robust evidence of negative effects of Quebec's policy on children, parenting and parenting outcomes, they write. Child outcomes include hyperactivity, inattention, aggressiveness and illness, and parental health and relations deteriorated, according to the study of NLSCY data.
Gruber, widely known for his work on health care reform, admits the study suggests that daycare looks bad for children. "But maybe that's the case for very young children. Maybe it reflects tough adjustment to daycare for them. We can't let that brush taint the whole picture," he says.
Gruber conducted the study, "Universal Childcare, Maternal Labor Supply and Family Well-Being," with Michael Baker of the University of Toronto and Kevin Milligan of the University of British Columbia.
Sarah H. Wright
2 May 2008
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2008/econ-childcare-0502.html
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Night club drug could ease depression: scientists
Scientists have unraveled how a horse tranquilizer and hallucinogenic night club drug known as "Special K" can ease depression, researchers said on Friday. Ketamine, which can also cause feelings of detachment, could pave the way for new treatments for people suffering from depression, the researchers added.
Their study, published in the Archives of General Psychiatry, found ketamine restores to normal the orbifrontal cortex, an area of the brain located above the eyes that is overactive in depressed people. The area is believed to be responsible for feelings of guilt, dread, apprehension and physical reactions such as a racing heart, said Bill Deakin, who led the study. "The study results have given us a completely novel way of treating depression and a new avenue of understanding depression," said Deakin, a neuroscientist at the University of Manchester.
Depression is a leading cause of suicide and affects about 121 million people worldwide, according to the World Health Organisation.
In their study, Deakin and his team gave intravenous ketamine to 33 healthy male volunteers and took minute-by-minute brain scans to see what was happening as the drug took effect. Images from the scans showed that the drug -- also used as a battlefield anesthetic -- worked quickly, Deakin said. The results were surprising because the researchers had expected that the ketamine would instead affect the part of the brain that controls psychosis, he added. "There was some activity there but more striking was the switching off of the depression centre," Deakin said.
Previous research had shown that ketamine improved symptoms in depressed people after just 24 hours -- far faster than the month it can take for Prozac to kick in -- but until now they did not know exactly how.
The latest findings give researchers a specific target to design new drugs and offer hope for the many people who do not respond to Prozac or other standard medicines, Deakin added. Prozac was initially introduced by U.S. drugmaker Eli Lilly and Co in 1987 and belongs to a class of compounds called selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs). It is now off patent and widely available generically as fluoxetine.
"Many people don't respond to treatment," he said in a telephone interview. "This offers a potential way of treating them."
Michael Kahn
2 May 2008