Reuters (11/21, Rapaport) reports children “who play ‘choking games’ to achieve a euphoric high are more likely to be suicidal and face a greater risk of injury and death when they play alone,” researchers found after examining “survey data collected from almost 21,000 Oregon teens” in eighth grade “in 2011 and 2013.”

HealthDay (11/21, Mozes) reports investigators found that “teens who had tried the practice alone were almost five times more likely to have thoughts of suicide than those who had done it in groups, and more than twice as likely to say they were in poor mental health overall.” The findings were published online Nov. 19 in Pediatrics.

Related Links:

— “Choking game riskiest when kids play alone,”Lisa Rapaport, Reuters, November 21, 2016.

HealthDay (11/21, Pallarito) reports, “Most preschoolers with mood, behavior and social disorders would benefit from non-drug therapies, but few receive this type of help,” experts from the American Academy of Pediatrics found in a new report. Because “parents, policymakers and” other caregivers “fail to recognize that young children are affected by the things that happen around them,” the AAP has proposed suggestions “for closing the treatment gap…in a policy statement published online Nov. 21 in the journal Pediatrics.”

Related Links:

— “Troubled Preschoolers Not Getting Effective Treatment: Report,”Karen Pallarito, HealthDay, November 21, 2016.

On its front page, the New York Times (11/20, A1, Hoffman, Subscription Publication) reported in a greater than 2,400-word story on the adjustments students with autism diagnoses face as they transition from high school to college. Currently, there are about 40 colleges around the US that have special “comprehensive support” programs designed to help students with autism. The “nuanced and complex” needs of these students, however, mean challenges remain for many, the Times reports.

Related Links:

— “Along the Autism Spectrum, a Path Through Campus Life,”Jan Hoffman, The New York Times, November 20, 2016.

HCP Live (11/18, Lutz) reported that girls who are diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) may “have a higher risk for multiple mental disorders that often lead to problems down the road,” researchers found after examining “data on nearly 2,000 girls primarily aged 8 to 13 years old, with and without” AD/HD, “in a meta-analysis of 18 studies.” The findings were published in the September issue of Pediatrics.

Related Links:

— “Girls with ADHD Often have Comorbid Behavioral Disorders,”Rachel Lutz, MD Magazine, November 18, 2016.

HealthDay (11/18, Salamon) reported, “Teenagers living in cohesive neighborhoods – where trusted neighbors get involved in monitoring each other’s children – experience fewer symptoms of depression and anxiety,” researchers found examining “information on more than 2,200 children born in large US cities.” The findings were published in the November issue of Health Affairs.

Related Links:

— “Neighborhoods May Be Key to Teens’ Mental Well-Being,” Maureen Salamon, HealthDay, November 18, 2016.

The Washington Post (11/17, Bernstein) says that on Thursday, US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy unveiled a landmark report which “places drug and alcohol addiction alongside smoking, AIDS and other public health crises of the past half-century, calling the current epidemic ‘a moral test for America.’”

USA Today (11/17, Hafner) says the report, called “Facing Addiction in America: The Surgeon General’s Report on Alcohol, Drugs, and Health,” found that “one in seven Americans,” or nearly 21 million people, will face substance addiction, but only about “10% of those now addicted receive treatment.” Data also show one person “dies every 19 minutes from opioid or heroin overdose alone.”

On its website, ABC News (11/17, Mohney) says that at present, “the number of people with a substance use disorder exceeds the number of people diagnosed with cancer – any kind of cancer, according to the report.” In addition, while data show “32,744 people died from car accidents in 2014, the report found that approximately 50,000 people died from either an opioid, alcohol or other drug overdose that year.”

Related Links:

— “Landmark report by Surgeon General calls drug crisis ‘a moral test for America’,”Lenny Bernstein, The Washington Post, November 17, 2016.

According to HCP Live (11/17, Smith), an “analysis of data” from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey “has identified a number of factors that predict depression in women with diabetes.” The findings of the 946-participant study reveal that “being less than 65 years old, having failed to complete high school, having self-reported poor health, being inactive due to poor health and suffering pain that interfered with usual activities” were all factors “significantly associated with an even greater risk of depression.” The findings were published online November 9 in the Diabetes Educator.

Related Links:

— “Age, Education, Health Status Predict Depression Risk in Women with Diabetes,”Andrew Smith, MD Magazine, November 17, 2016.

The New York Times (11/16, Reynolds, Subscription Publication) reports, “Exercise may be an effective treatment for depression and might even help prevent us from becoming depressed in the first place,” the findings of three studies suggest. The three “studies pool outcomes from past research involving more than a million men and women and, taken together, strongly suggest that regular exercise alters our bodies and brains in ways that make us resistant to despair.” The studies can be seen here, here, and here.

Related Links:

— “How Exercise Might Keep Depression at Bay,”Gretchen Reynolds, The New York Times, November 16, 2016.

Reuters (11/15, Rapaport) reports that research suggests “women with a history of depression may have lower survival odds with breast cancer than patients without past mental health problems.” The study included approximately “45,000 women with early-stage breast malignancies.” Investigators found that “13 percent of patients previously treated with antidepressants died within five years of their cancer diagnosis, compared with 11 percent of women who hadn’t ever taken medication for depression.” The findings were published online in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Related Links:

— “Past depression tied to worse breast cancer survival odds,”Lisa Rapaport, Reuters, November 15, 2016.

HealthDay (11/15, Reinberg) reported that “the rate of diagnoses for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder” (AD/HD) “among US preschoolers has leveled off,” and the “prescribing rate of stimulant medications for these young patients has also stayed steady, a promising trend that researchers credit to treatment guidelines that were introduced” five years ago by the American Academy of Pediatrics. Those guidelines “called for a standardized approach to diagnosis, and recommended behavior therapy,” not medications, “as the first-line therapy for preschoolers.”

Medscape (11/15, Phillips) reports some “21, 558 visits from 143,881 children at 63 primary care practices” were included in the study, the findings of which were published online Nov. 15 in Pediatrics. The author of an accompanying editorialobserved, “This approach ‘is an innovative process that can provide more rigorous information about moving evidence into practice.’

Related Links:

— “Guidelines May Have Helped Curb ADHD Diagnoses in Preschoolers,” Steven Reinberg, HealthDay, November 15, 2016.