Reuters (3/18, Rapaport) reports a study suggests “the number of young people visiting U.S. emergency rooms with psychiatric problems is rising, driven largely by a surge in teens and minority youth seeking urgent help for mental illnesses.” The study found a 28 percent increase between 2011 and 2015 among young people aged six to 24 visiting psychiatric emergency departments.

HealthDay (3/18, Mozes) reports the findings were published online March 18 in the journal Pediatrics.

Related Links:

— “More U.S. youth seeking help during psychiatric emergencies, “Lisa Rapaport, Reuters, March 18, 2019

Healio (3/15, Demko) reported, “A cross-validated model that included self-reported history and severity of suicidality, positive screens for mental disorders and Army career characteristics was associated with suicide attempts 18 to 45 months later among soldiers with suicide ideation,” researchers concluded after following “3,649 soldiers – from baseline to 18-45 months – who completed surveys in Army STARRS and reported lifetime suicidal ideation.” The study also revealed that “10% of soldiers with suicidal ideation who had the highest predicted risk accounted for 39.2% of later suicide attempts.” The findings were published online March 15 in JAMA Network Open.

Related Links:

— “Self-report battery may improve risk assessment in soldiers with suicidal ideation, “Savannah Demko, Healio, March 15, 2019

In an opinion piece for the New York Times (3/15), author, physician, and psychiatrist in training Lisa Pryor observed, “With [its] focus on diagnosis and classification, you would be forgiven for thinking that psychiatry is a profession devoted merely to sorting and labeling humans,” as is “highlighted by the common description of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders – the thick volume published by the American Psychiatric Association listing the various diseases of the mind – as the ‘bible’ of psychiatry.” In real life, however, the DSM “is an explanation of the human mind no more than a dictionary is an explanation of literature,” Dr. Pryor wrote. Instead, she promoted the concept of “psychiatric formulation.” Under that concept, “a formulation gathers up all the biological, psychological and social factors that have led to a person becoming unwell and considers how these factors interconnect,” and in so doing, “provides clues to the pathway out of suffering.”

Related Links:

— “Mental Illness Isn’t All in Your Head, “Lisa Pryor, The New York Times, March 15, 2019

U.S. News & World Report (3/14, Newman) reports, “An estimated two million children visited an emergency department [ED] for a traumatic brain injury [TBI] sustained during sports- and recreation-related activities between 2010 and 2016,” research indicated. What’s more, “football, bicycling, playground activities and soccer were the activities most likely to cause a brain injury in” children, “researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention” concluded after examining “data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System–All Injury Program.” The study “found an average of 283,000 children under the age of 18 sought care in emergency departments each year for sports- and recreation-related traumatic brain injuries, with the highest rates among males and children between the ages of 10 and 17 years old.”

Related Links:

— “Football, Soccer Lead to the Most Brain Injuries in Kids, “Katelyn Newman, U.S. News & World Report, March 14, 2019

In “Science Now,” the Los Angeles Times (3/14, Healy) reports research reveals “that U.S. teens and young adults in 2017 were more distressed, more likely to suffer from major depression, and more prone to suicide than their counterparts in the millennial generation were at the same age.” In addition, investigators “found that between 2008 and 2017, Gen Z’s emotional distress and its propensity toward self-harm grew more than for any other generation of Americans during the same period.” What’s more, “by 2017, just over 13% of Americans between the ages of 12 and 25 had symptoms consistent with an episode of major depression in the previous year – a 62% increase in eight years.”

The Washington Post (3/14, Bahrampour) reports the study, which “used data from the annual National Survey on Drug Use and Health and also relied on suicide statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, found the greatest upticks in young people who were wealthier and female.” The study authors attributed the increases in mental health disorders “to increased time spent on social media and electronic communication, along with a decrease in the hours of sleep young people are getting.” Not getting enough “sleep is associated with depression and anxiety.” The findings were published online March 14 in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology.

Related Links:

— “Mental health problems are on rise among American teens and young adults, study finds, “Melissa Healy, Los Angeles Times, March 14, 2019

CNN (3/14, Powell) reports on its website “that the rate of Americans who died from dementia has more than doubled from 30.5 deaths per 100,000 people in 2000 to 66.7 in 2017,” according to a report from the National Center for Health Statistics. Dr. Ellen Kramarow, the report’s lead author, said that part of the increase is due to the population aging, “If people live longer, they don’t die of other causes, so they live to the point where the risk for dementia is higher.”

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (3/14, Pirani) reports that CDC Director Dr. Robert R. Redfield said, “Early diagnosis is key to helping people and their families cope with loss of memory, navigate the health care system, and plan for their care in the future.”

Related Links:

— “Deaths from dementia have more than doubled in US, report says, “Denise Powell, CNN, March 14, 2019

Reuters (3/13, Carroll) reports researchers found that people with “second- or third-degree relatives with Alzheimer’s” disease may have an increased risk of developing the disease themselves. The findings were published in Neurology.

Additional coverage is provided by HealthDay (3/13, Gordon), Healio (3/13, Demko), Newsweek (3/13, Gander), and the Telegraph (UK) (3/13, Knapton).

Related Links:

— “Great-grandparents or cousins with Alzheimer’s linked to higher risk for the disease, “Linda Carroll, Linda Carroll, March 13, 2019

The Philadelphia (PA) Inquirer (3/13, Giordano) reports, “In a new program developed at the Yale Child Study Center called SPACE, or Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions,” adults “are being taught to help their kids manage anxiety by reducing – lovingly and supportively – the accommodations the adults make for their children’s symptoms.” A 124-child study published online March 6 “in the Journal of the American Academy of Childhood and Adolescent Psychiatry…found this admittedly old-school approach of limiting accommodations was not only effective but appeared to work as well as…cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).” The Inquirer adds, “Nearly a third of adolescents have had an anxiety disorder, and more than eight percent of them experience severe impairment, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.”

Related Links:

— “Childhood anxiety treatment may best be targeted at parents, study finds, “Rita Giordano, The Philadelphia Inquirer, March 13, 2019

Two public service announcements about suicide awareness and prevention which were produced by high school students in Montgomery County, Maryland, are being played in local movie theaters. From the article at Patch.Com:

Two student-produced public service announcements about suicide awareness and prevention will be shown at local movie theaters.

The students created the PSAs for a contest aimed at preventing teen suicide, which — according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — is the second leading cause of death for youth between the ages of 10 and 19.

Read more here: Suicide PSA By High School Students To Play In Local Theaters

HealthDay (3/12, Preidt) reports that taking medications to treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) will not raise the risk of seizures in people with epilepsy, researchers concluded after analyzing “data from thousands of epilepsy patients in Sweden.” The findings were published online Jan. 25 in the journal Epilepsia. HealthDay adds, “Approximately nine percent of children aged two to 17 have had” a diagnosis of AD/HD, “according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”

Related Links:

— “ADHD Meds Safe With Epilepsy, Study Finds, “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, March 12, 2019