The NPR (11/12, Korry) “Shots” blog reports that “an estimated 2.2 million adolescents – 8.8 percent of youth aged 12 to 17 years old – are currently using an illicit drug, according to a 2014 Behavioral Health Barometer prepared for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).” Illicit “drug use changes brain development, and when substances are used during adolescence, young people are much more likely to become addicted…said” John Knight, MD, founder and director of the Center for Adolescent Substance Abuse Research at Boston Children’s Hospital. “If we could only get kids to postpone their first drink or their first use of drugs, we could greatly diminish the prevalence of addiction in the US,” Dr. Knight said.

Related Links:

— “To Prevent Addiction In Adults, Help Teens Learn How To Cope,” Elaine Korry, National Public Radio, November 13, 2015.

USA Today (11/13, Brook, Locker) reports that a study found that “babies and toddlers of soldiers returning from deployment face the heightened risk of abuse in the six months after the parent’s return home, a risk that increases among soldiers who deploy more frequently.” David Rubin, the study’s senior author from the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said that the study “demonstrates that elevated stress when a soldier returns home can have real and potentially devastating consequences for some military families.” The study will be published today in the American Journal of Public Health.

HealthDay (11/13, Haelle) reports that the research “looked at rates of confirmed maltreatment among children of more than 112,000 deployed US Army soldiers.”

Related Links:

— “Study finds more child abuse in homes of returning vets,” Tom Vanden Brook and Ray Locker, USA Today, November 12, 2015.

HealthDay (11/13, Preidt) reports that a study published online Nov. 12 in JAMA Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery suggests that patients with head and neck cancer patients may have a higher risk for suicide. Investigators looked at data on more than 350,000 US patients with head and neck cancer. Among these individuals, “857 died by suicide.” The researchers “found that the suicide rate among head and neck cancer patients was three times higher than in the general population.” The data also indicated that “suicide rates were higher among patients treated with radiation alone compared to surgery alone.”

Related Links:

— “ead, Neck Cancer Patients May Be at Higher Risk for Suicide: Study,” Robert Preidt, HealthDay, November 12, 2015.

USA Today (11/13, Szabo) reports that the National Health Interview Survey (pdf) “has found a big jump in the number of children with autism, although researchers caution that the increase is likely due to the way that questions were asked.” The “annual survey” now reveals that “more than 2.2% of children ages three to 17 – about one in 45 – have autism.”

The Los Angeles Times (11/13, Healy) reports in “Science Now” that the report, which was prepared by the CDC’s National Center for Health Statistics, points out that “from 2011 to 2013, the National Survey of Children’s Health found that 1.25% of US children had” an autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The new figure of 2.24% “reflects changes in surveying techniques designed to prod parents’ memories for past diagnoses their children may have” received. It now “appears parents who in the past would have reported an intellectual disability or other neurocognitive disorder in a child now are more likely to report autism spectrum disorder.”

The AP (11/13, Stobbe) reports that the CDC previously estimated that one in 68 children may have ASD, but “the lower CDC estimate is from researchers checking health and school records for more than 47,000 children.” Nevertheless, “the one in 68 [figure] will still be treated as the best estimate, said Michael Rosanoff, director of public health research for the advocacy group Autism Speaks,” even though “the new number supports a belief that one in 68 is an underestimate, he added.”

The NBC News (11/13, Fox) website reports that the new “findings fit in with other studies seeking to show whether autism is actually occurring more frequently, or simply being recognized and diagnosed more often.” Recently, researchers from Penn State University “also found that children are being reclassified from something broad, like pervasive developmental disorder, to the more specific autism.” Bloomberg News (11/13, Tozzi) and LiveScience (11/13, Nierenberg) also cover the story.

Related Links:

— “Study finds more than 2% of children have autism,” Liz Szabo, USA Today, November 13, 2015.

The New York Times (11/11, Lucchesi) “Well” blog reported that a study published online June 4 in the journal Social and Personality Psychology Compass “found that those who were overweight or obese were more likely to report problems like depression, anxiety, substance abuse and low self-esteem if they had experienced weight-based discrimination in the past.”

Related Links:

— “Is Fat Stigma Making Us Miserable?,” Emilie Le Beau Lucchesi, New York Times, November 11, 2015.