HealthDay (9/2, Preidt) reports, “Cyberbullying is less common among teens who feel loved and supported by their parents,” investigators concluded after analyzing survey “responses from more than 12,600 U.S. youth aged 11 to 15 years” in which the children “were asked about their bullying behaviors and their relationship with their parents.” The study revealed that “the more adolescents considered their parents as loving, the less likely they were to cyberbully, the survey findings” revealed. The findings were published online in the International Journal of Bullying Prevention.

Related Links:

— “Cyberbullying Could Rise During Lockdown, But Parents Can Stop It “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, September 2, 2020

NBC News (9/3, Kingkade) reports researchers “found active shooter drills in schools correlated with a 42 percent increase in anxiety and stress and a 39 percent increase in depression among those in the school community, including students, teachers and parents, based on their social media posts,” according to a report released by Everytown for Gun Safety. The report is based “on research from Georgia Tech’s Social Dynamics and Wellbeing Lab, which analyzed 27.9 million tweets and 1,454 Reddit posts that came from accounts with connections to 114 schools in 33 states that held active shooter drills in the 2018-19 academic year.”

Related Links:

— “Active shooter drills are meant to prepare students. But research finds ‘severe’ side effects “Tyler Kingkade, NBC News , September 3, 2020

The AP (9/2, Tanner) reports researchers at Boston University found “half of U.S. adults surveyed reported at least some signs of depression, such as hopelessness, feeling like a failure or getting little pleasure from doing things,” which is “double the rate from a different survey two years ago.” The findings were published in JAMA Network Open.

HealthDay (9/2, Reinberg) and MedPage Today (9/2, Hlavinka) also cover the story.

Related Links:

— “Depression, anxiety spike amid outbreak and turbulent times “Lindsey Tanner, AP, September 2, 2020

NPR (9/1, Hamilton) reports on the challenges and benefits of distance learning for children with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) “and other learning disabilities.” For some children, not being “around peers” can make it “easier to focus.” For other youngsters, however, distractions in the home make distance learning much more difficult, and lack of peer interaction, “recess and the physical activity that goes with it” may prove trying to both kids and their parents. Several parents and experts are interviewed in the article.

Related Links:

— “Remote Learning’s Distractions Put Extra Pressure On Students With ADHD “Jon Hamilton, NPR, September 1, 2020

Psychiatric News (9/1) reports, “Racial and ethnic discrimination may increase the risk that members of minority groups will experience severe alcohol use disorder,” investigators concluded after analyzing “data from 17,115 racial/ethnic minorities who participated in the National Epidemiological Survey on Alcohol-Related Conditions III (NESARC-III), a national survey that took place in 2012-2013.” The findings were published online ahead of print in the November issue of the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence.

Related Links:

— “Discrimination May Increase Risk of Severe Alcohol Use in Minorities Psychiatric News, September 1, 2020

MD Edge ObGyn (9/1, Craven) reports Dr. Dolores Malaspina of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai spoke about the role of epigenetics in the development of psychiatric conditions at a virtual meeting presented by Current Psychiatry, the American Academy of Clinical Psychiatrists, and other groups. Dr. Malaspina said there are not enough genes to account for all human diversity, so more research needs to be done into the role of gene expression in developing psychiatric conditions. Dr. Malaspina said, “The fetus does not simply develop from a genetic blueprint of the genes from its father and mother. Instead, signals are received throughout the pregnancy as to the health of the mother and signals about the environment.”

Related Links:

— “More research needed on how fetal exposure affects later development “Jeff Craven, MD Edge ObGyn, September 1, 2020

Healio (9/1, Gramigna) reports, “Anhedonia severity differed across various disorders,” investigators concluded after analyzing “168 articles featuring 16,494 participants.” Researchers then “found that those with current major depressive disorder, schizophrenia, substance use disorder, Parkinson’s disease and chronic pain exhibited higher scores on the” Snaith-Hamilton Pleasure Scale, “which is a widely used questionnaire for assessing anhedonia,” than “healthy participants.” The findings of the systematic review and meta-analysis were published online in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Inability to experience pleasure varies across psychiatric disorders, “Joe Gramigna, Healio, September 01, 2020

Healio (8/31, Gramigna) reports, “Mental health during childhood and adolescence was linked to adolescent health behaviors,” investigators concluded after analyzing “data collected in 2008 and 2015 of 9,369 young people born between 2000 and 2001 who were included in the U.K. population-representative longitudinal Millennium Cohort Study.” The findings of the “cohort study” were published online in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Sleep, fruit/vegetable consumption, social media use influence adolescent mental health, “Joe Gramigna, Healio, August 31, 2020

MedPage Today (8/31, George) reports, “Fear of being out of mobile phone contact – known as nomophobia (no mobile phone phobia) – was extremely common among college students and was tied to poor sleep health,” investigators concluded in a study that “recruited 327 university students.” The study revealed that “nine out of 10 university students had moderate or severe nomophobia, which was linked to greater daytime sleepiness, avolition, and poorer sleep hygiene.” The findings were presented at the virtual SLEEP 2020, a joint meeting of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine and the Sleep Research Society.

Related Links:

— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

MedPage Today (8/30, George) reports that research indicated “nightmares that occurred twice a week or more were linked with cardiovascular disease in relatively young military veterans, even after controlling for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).” Investigators found, in the study of 3,468 US military veterans, that “frequent distressing dreams were associated with hypertension,…heart problems,…and myocardial infarction…after adjusting for age, race, and sex.” The findings were presented “at virtual SLEEP 2020, a joint meeting of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) and the Sleep Research Society.”

Related Links:

— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)