MD Magazine (12/18, Walter) reports that benzodiazepines, a class of medication used to treat anxiety, “may be misused and abused by children, leading to increased overdose and fatality rates,” researchers concluded after identifying and analyzing “national trends for pediatric benzodiazepine exposures between 2000-2015 after gathering data from 296,838 pediatric patients,” then procuring “data of benzodiazepine exposures in adolescences under the age of 18 who reported to participating US poison centers.” The findings were online Oct. 15 in the journal Clinical Toxicology.

Related Links:

— “Benzodiazepine Overdose Rates Increasing in Teens, “Kenny Walter, MD Magazine, December 18, 2019

Healio (12/18, Gramigna) reports, “Adolescent girls with anxiety disorders may be at an increased risk for eating disorders,” researchers concluded after analyzing “data for 2,406 female adolescents.” The findings of the “longitudinal cohort study” were published online Dec. 17 in the European Eating Disorders Review.

Related Links:

— “Study finds association between anxiety and eating disorders among adolescent girls, “Joe Gramigna, Healio, December 18, 2019

Healio (12/17, Gramigna) reports, “Black adolescents in the United States reported more than five instances of racial discrimination daily, which led to short-term increases in depressive symptoms,” researchers concluded after surveying “101 black U.S. American adolescents to measure daily racial discrimination and 14-day depressive symptoms slopes.” The findings were published in the January-February issue of the Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology.

Related Links:

— “Black adolescents may experience five daily instances of racial discrimination, “Joe Gramigna, Healio, December 17, 2019

The New York Times (12/18, Richtel) reports, “Teenagers are drinking less alcohol, smoking fewer cigarettes and trying fewer hard drugs, new federal survey data” indicate, but “these public health gains have been offset by a sharp increase in vaping of marijuana and nicotine.” The data come from the Monitoring the Future survey, “a closely watched annual study by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, or NIDA, of eighth, 10th and 12th graders.”

USA Today (12/18, O’Donnell) reports that the data “showed a ‘significant’ increase in the number of 8th through 12th grade students vaping marijuana, and a similarly high jump in daily cannabis use by 8th and 10th graders, while alcohol and opioid use continues to plummet.” In high school seniors, one in five “vaped marijuana in the last year and 14% vaped it in the last month, the National Institute on Drug Abuse reported.” Those “numbers doubled in the past two years.”

The Washington Post (12/17, Bernstein) reports that when students were asked by researchers “why they vaped, nearly 61 percent said to experiment, nearly 42 percent said they enjoyed the flavor, nearly 38 percent said to have a good time with friends and more than 37 percent said to relax or relieve tension.”

Related Links:

— “Teen Marijuana Vaping Soars, Displacing Other Habits, “Joe Gramigna, The New York Times , December 18, 2019

The AP (12/17, Tanner) reports, “Accidental overdoses cause 90% of all U.S. opioid-related deaths while suicides account for far fewer of these fatalities than previously thought,” research indicated. After analyzing data from “death certificates for people aged 15 and older,” researchers “found that suicides accounted for 4% of all opioid-related deaths.” The findings were published online in JAMA.

According to HealthDay (12/17, Preidt), the four percent figure is “far below recent estimates of 20% to 30%, said the” study authors. The findings were published online Dec. 17 in a research letter in JAMA.

Related Links:

— “Most US opioid overdose deaths accidental, 4% are suicide, “Lindsey Tanner, AP, December 17, 2019

HealthDay (12/16, Preidt) reports that about 75 percent “of U.S. teens who use e-cigarettes are vaping addictive or mind-altering substances – more than once suspected,” researchers concluded after analyzing “data from more than 14,500 teens who were part of a 2017 nationwide survey.” The findings were published online in the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.

Related Links:

— “Youth Vapers Often Use Nicotine or Pot, Not Just Flavoring, “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, December 16, 2019

HealthDay (12/16, Preidt) reports, “U.S. teens and young adults are as likely as older people to overdose on prescription opioid” analgesics and “have the same risk factors, researchers” concluded after analyzing “data on 2.8 million privately insured patients from 12 to 21 years of age who received opioid prescriptions between 2009 and 2017.” The findings were published online in JAMA Pediatrics.

Related Links:

— “Teen Opioid Users Face Same OD Risks as Adults, “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, December 16, 2019

Medscape (12/16, Lowry, Subscription Publication) reports, “The powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl is ubiquitous and laced into so many substances of abuse that many patients may not even realize they have been exposed to this key driver of opioid overdose deaths in the US,” research indicated. The “study of more than 700 visits to a psychiatric ED which services US veterans revealed 14% tested positive for fentanyl,” but in these visits, “21% of patients reported no opioid exposure.” These findings “suggest fentanyl screening should become routine in all psychiatric emergency departments (EDs).” The study was recently presented at the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry (AAAP) 30th Annual Meeting.

Related Links:

— Medscape (requires login and subscription)

WGBH-FM Boston (12/15, McKim) reports on “the responsibilities and challenges of public schools to respond to the increasing mental health needs of students,” particularly since “suicide is the second-leading cause of death for teenagers.” Currently, “most health specialists agree that school personnel, in contact with students for a large part of the day, can be a key resource in providing help” to seriously troubled adolescents. But, while “the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention recommends that states require that all public school personnel receive at least two hours of suicide awareness and prevention training each year,” the “foundation says only 13 states require such annual training.”

Related Links:

— “Massachusetts Case Probes The Role Schools Play In Teen Suicide Prevention, “Jenifer Mckim, NPR, December 15, 2019

Psychiatric News (12/13) reported, “It takes an average of seven years for people who have some, but not all, symptoms of obsessive-compulsive disorder (subthreshold OCD) to develop full-blown OCD,” researchers concluded. The study also revealed that “certain characteristics, such as male sex, the presence of other psychiatric conditions, and romantic status, may be associated with a faster transition from subthreshold OCD to OCD.” The findings of the 954-patient study were published online Dec. 10 in the Journal of Affective Disorders.

Related Links:

— “Male Sex, Comorbid Psychiatric Conditions, Romantic Status Linked to Faster Progression to OCD, Psychiatric News, December 13, 2019