USA Today (2/21, Healy) reports, “Children whose activity choices, interests and pretend play don’t conform to expected gender roles face an increased risk of abuse and future trauma,” according to a study published online Feb. 20 in the journal Pediatrics. “One in 10 kids display gender non-conformity before age 11 and, on average, are more likely to experience physical, psychological and sexual abuse and experience post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) by early adulthood,” the study of “nearly 9,000 young adults” found, with abuse “perpetrated mostly by parents or other adults in the home,” the study authors explained.

Pointing out an opposite viewpoint, the AP (2/20, Tanner) reported, “Offering sex-changing treatment to kids younger than 18 raises ethical concerns, and their parents’ motives need to be closely examined, said Dr. Margaret Moon, a member of the American Academy of Pediatrics’ bioethics committee,” who was not involved in the study. “Some kids may get a psychiatric diagnosis when they are just hugely uncomfortable with narrowly defined gender roles; or some may be gay and are coerced into treatment by parents more comfortable with a sex change than having a homosexual child, said Moon, who teaches at the Johns Hopkins Berman Institute of Bioethics.” She stated that it’s “harmful ‘to have an irreversible treatment too early.'”

According to MedPage Today (2/21, Walsh), a second study published in the same journal found that “among children and teens evaluated for medical intervention to suppress puberty or for hormone therapy, 44% had been given a psychiatric diagnosis — most often depression — and 21% reported self-mutilation.” MedPage Today adds, “In 2009, guidelines on the treatment of adolescents with this disorder were published by the Endocrine Society, recommending delay of puberty with reversible gonadotropin-releasing hormone (GnRH) analogs at Tanner stages 1-2 in eligible adolescents.” The study authors wrote, “This fully reversible treatment allowed patients time until age 16 to decide, in consultation with health professionals and their families, whether to begin hormone treatment that would allow them to transition physically.” Also covering the story are CBS News /WebMD (2/20, Mann) and HealthDay (2/21, Esposito).

Now Chicago, before that LA where the LA County jail was the largest mental institution in the US. – TEA

Related Links:

— “Gender Uncertainty Risky for Kids,”Nancy Walsh , MedPage Today,February 20, 2012.

The following is Copyright 2012 by National Public Radio. Read the original and listen to the piece at NPR’s website.

A Fan’s Notes On Pro Sports, Brain Damage
By Scott Simon
National Public Radio January 28, 2012

I will watch the Super Bowl next weekend, along with several billion other people. I expect to cheer, shout and have some guacamole.

But as a fan, I’m finding it a little harder to cheer, especially for my favorite football and hockey players, without thinking: They’re hurting themselves.

Not just breaks and sprains but dangerous, disabling brain damage.

Case studies have mounted over the last year. Dave Duerson of the 1985 Super Bowl-winning Bears shot himself in the chest just after the last Super Bowl and left a note: “Please, see that my brain is given to the NFL’s brain bank.”

That’s Boston University’s Center for the Study of Traumatic Encephalopathy, which determined that Mr. Duerson’s brain had been battered by at least 10 concussions and countless other football hits that may have caused dementia, addiction and depression that led to his death.

Jim McMahon, once the team’s brash quarterback, confided at a 25th reunion that his memory is “pretty much gone.”

“It’s unfortunate what the game does to you,” he said.

The dazzling Walter Payton of that same famous team died of liver disease. But a biography published last year achingly depicts the depression and addictions Mr. Payton suffered during decades of hits: thousands in games, tens of thousands in practice.

Sidney Crosby of the Pittsburgh Penguins is hockey’s greatest star — the skater who scored Canada’s goal over the U.S. to win a Gold Medal at the 2010 Olympic Games.

But Sid the Kid suffered a concussion last January. Who knows when, or if, he’ll play again?

Just a few weeks ago, John Branch of The New York Times wrote a heart-piercing series after 3 NHL “enforcers” — paid brawlers — died within four months last year. He focused on Derek Boogaard of the New York Rangers, who accidentally overdosed on booze and oxycodone at the age of 28.

Boston University’s Center opened Derek Boogaard’s brain and found profound damage.

Chris Nowinski, a center co-director, is a former pro wrestler who loves contact sports. But he went to a Boston Bruins hockey game shortly thereafter and says that when a routine brawl broke out, fans stood and cheered. He couldn’t.

Several former players have filed lawsuits. Sports writers and pundits have called for new rules and equipment, although most studies show new rules and equipment may do little to limit injury while players grow larger, faster, and risk more to sign million-dollar contracts.

I’ll watch the Super Bowl next week with my children and wonder how comfortable we fans can be, sitting and snacking while too many of the players we cheer entertain us and get rich at such terrible cost to themselves.

The ABC News (1/21, James) “Medical Unit” blog reported, “Women younger than 50 who survive breast cancer face an array of quality of life challenges: psychological stress, weight gain and decline in physical activity, according to a study published…in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. They also struggle with reproductive issues such as infertility and early-onset menopause.”

HealthDay (1/21, Preidt) reported that investigators looked at data from 28 studies. The research “revealed that overall quality of life was reduced in” breast cancer patients 50 years of age or less, “and that mental issues were more severe than physical problems, said” the investigators. The researchers “also found that younger breast cancer patients were more depressed than women of the same age without cancer in the general population, or breast cancer patients older than 50.” Meanwhile, “premature menopause, infertility and menopause-related symptoms were more common among patients 50 and younger and contributed to their levels of distress.”

The New York Times (1/20, ED14, Moore, Subscription Publication) reported that “over the past several years recovery programs” for students with substance abuse problems “have been popping up at colleges, large and small, public and private.” Currently, “there are more than 20 programs, with more in the pipeline.”

Modern Healthcare (1/20, Conn, Subscription Publication) writes, “A report from the not-for-profit ECRI Institute, a patient-safety and quality-improvement organization, details social media’s potential as a public-engagement tool for healthcare organizations but warns that risk management is necessary.”

Researchers “found that 41% of roughly 23,000 respondents reported using social media to research healthcare decisions.” Other results include that “most hospitals use social media ‘as an extension of their existing marketing and public relations plans’; physicians use the sites also to market themselves and their practices while often mixing in personal information.”

The report also warned, “A disorganized approach to social media will be obvious to other users and will damage the organization’s credibility and reputation.”

USA Today (1/20, Zoroya, 1.78M) reports, “Army suicide rates declined for the first time in four years in 2011, the result of a complex effort to identify soldiers engaged in risky or self-destructive behavior, according to the outgoing vice chief of staff, Gen. Peter Chiarelli.” USA Today adds, “Suicides among active-duty soldiers and those in the National Guard and Reserve who are not on active duty fell by 9% last year from 305 deaths in 2010 to 278 in 2011.” However, the Army suicide rate, “about 24 per 100,000 last year, remains higher than a similar demographic among civilians, about 19 per 100,000.”

The New York Times (1/20, Bumiller, Subscription Publication, 1.23M) depicts the findings in a different light, saying that “suicides among active-duty soldiers hit another record high in 2011,” while noting “there was a slight decrease if nonmobilized Reserve and National Guard troops were included in the calculation.” Chiarelli also said it is “unacceptable,” that “violent sex crimes” increased “nearly 30 percent.” Chiarelli “said factors driving the increase in sex crimes were alcohol use and new barracks that offered more privacy.”

The CNN (1/20, Shaughnessy) website, meanwhile, reports, “The latest numbers released by Chiarelli during a briefing with reporters Thursday show that active-duty Army suicides were up again in 2011, compared to 2010,” and that “suicides throughout the Army, the Army Reserves and the National Guard, while down in the past year, are still nearly 40% above what they were from 2008, the year before Chiarelli began overseeing the Army suicide prevention effort.” Chiarelli, who “believes that one way to reduce soldier suicides is to get guns away from soldiers who exhibit high-risk behavior,” commented on the numbers, emphasizing, “What I would look at here is the fact that for all practical purposes for the last two to three years,” the numbers have “leveled off.”

The AP (1/20) reports Idaho Division of Behavioral Health Administrator Ross Edmunds said that “two Idaho hospitals that care for severely mentally ill patients have seen big increases in admissions over the past five years.” State Hospital North in Orofino had admissions rise by 50 percent even as its state funding dropped 11 percent. State Hospital South saw “a 90 percent increase in admissions and a 22 percent funding decrease.” Edmunds suggested that the “admission increases are partly because of greater demand for services and partly because of improved cooperation with community support groups.” The Lewiston (ID) Tribune (1/20, Spence) also covers this story.

MedWire (1/19, Cowen) reports that according to a study published online Jan. 17 in the International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, “the overall mortality rate among elderly patients with schizophrenia is more than twice that in the general elderly population.”

Researchers arrived at this conclusion after examining “mortality rates between 1999 and 2008 among 9,461 patients with the mental health disorder who were aged 65 years or older in 1999,” then comparing those findings “with mortality rates in the age- and gender-matched general population over the same period, and expressed as standard mortality ratios.”

USA Today (1/19, Jayson) reports that “the mysterious symptoms of facial tics and verbal outbursts affecting 12 teenage girls in the small community of LeRoy,” New York “has brought new awareness to a very unfamiliar stress-related condition referred to as ‘conversion disorder.'” David Fassler, MD, a child and adolescent psychiatrist at the University of Vermont in Burlington, explains that “conversion disorder is characterized by problems with voluntary motor or sensory function that suggest a neurological or other general medical condition but aren’t fully consistent with known biological causes or explanations.”

Fassler says that the disorder is more common in women and is related to stress or anxiety. Neurologist Laszlo Mechtler of the Dent Neurologic Institute in Buffalo, who treated 11 of the girls, said, “When conversion disorder occurs in a larger group, it’s called ‘mass psychogenic illness.'”

The Washington Post (1/19, Brown) reports, “About 20 percent of American adults suffer some sort of mental illness each year, and about five percent experience a serious disorder that disrupts work, family or social life, according to a government report released Thursday” by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). “The annual National Survey on Drug Use and Health sketches a now-familiar picture of a country where mental illness is common and the demand for treatment high.” For example, “mental illness is most prevalent in women, young adults, the unemployed and people with low incomes.”

USA Today (1/19, Lloyd) points out, “A majority of Americans with mental disorders did not receive professional help in 2010,” according to the SAMHSA report. “Although about 20% of American adults (45.9 million) reported any mental illness in 2010, only 39.2% of that group said they got treatment,” the report found. The article also pointed out that a recent study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention “also showed how few people are seeing professionals for help: Less than one-third of Americans taking one antidepressant and less than one-half of those taking multiple antidepressants have seen a mental health professional in the past year.”

WebMD (1/19, McMillen) explains, “The number of adults who contemplated or attempted suicide was also tallied. According to the report, 8.7 million Americans seriously considered suicide, and 2.5 million of them made plans to kill themselves,” and approximately “one million adults attempted it.” What’s more, the report found that “adults who had a diagnosable mental disorder were about twice as likely to abuse illicit drugs, such as cocaine, hallucinogens, inhalants, and heroin. Binge drinking, alcohol abuse, and smoking were also significantly higher among adults who had a mental illness,” the report found. Reuters (1/19, Nichols) also covers the story.