Reuters (12/30) reports that according to a review published online Dec. 29 in the journal Pediatrics, further investigation is needed into how interactive and mobile media are affecting infants, toddlers, and preschool children in the areas of language acquisition, learning, interpersonal skills and behavior. Currently, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that children younger than two should avoid entertainment media and television. The authors of the review made the suggestion that physicians speak to parents about how their little ones are using interactive media and take part in media use with their youngsters.

Related Links:

— “Guidance and research on mobile, interactive media for kids needed,” Reuters, December 30, 2014.

HealthDay (12/30, Mozes) reports that according to a review recently published online in the journal Neuropsychiatry of Childhood and Adolescence, “men obsessed with muscularity” may also develop anorexia. After examining the results of 24 studies encompassing some 279 male patients with anorexia, researchers found that about two-thirds of those studied “said that their dissatisfaction with their body stemmed from a desire for increased muscle mass and lower body fat.”

Related Links:

— “For Anorexic Men, the Focus Is on Muscle,” Alan Mozes, HealthDay, December 29, 2014.

The Daily Caller (12/30, Bennett) reports that a study published Dec. 11 in the journal LGBT Health suggests that the suicide rate among transgender military veterans “is very similar to the rate for veterans suffering from schizophrenia or serious depression.” After examining “a sample of 3,327 transgendered veterans over a period of 10 years, from 2000 to 2009,” researchers also found that transgender “suicides occurred at an even younger age than (in) veterans who committed suicide as a result of suffering from schizophrenia.”

Related Links:

— “10 Percent Died During Study Of Veteran Transgender Suicide,” Jonah Bennett, Daily Caller, December 29, 2014.

HealthDay (12/25, Haelle) reported that according to a study published online Dec. 1 in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence, adolescents may be “more likely to start smoking or drinking with each additional symptom they have of attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) or conduct disorder.” Researchers arrived at that conclusion after analyzing “data on more than 2,500 teens, aged 12 to 15, in a national survey conducted with their parents between 2000 and 2004.”

Notably, adolescents diagnosed both with AD/HD and with conduct disorder “were more than three times more likely to use tobacco or alcohol, even after accounting for differences in age, race/ethnicity, sex, household income and having a household member who smoked.”

Related Links:

— “ADHD May Raise Teens’ Odds for Smoking, Drinking,” Tara Haelle, HealthDay, December 24, 2014.

On the front of its Business Day section, the New York Times (12/26, B1, Singer, Subscription Publication) reported that recently the UK suicide-prevention group the Samaritans “introduced a free web app,” called Samaritans Radar, “that would alert users whenever someone they followed on Twitter posted worrisome phrases like ‘tired of being alone’ or ‘hate myself.’”

To some psychiatrists, however, “the notion of consumer apps like Samaritans Radar that would let untrained people parse the posts of individual friends and strangers for possible mental health disorders amounts to medical quackery.”

Meanwhile, some researchers are still mining social media platforms for insight into various health trends and issues. “The National Institutes of Health, for instance, recently committed more than $11 million to support studies into using sites like Twitter and Facebook to better understand, prevent and treat substance abuse.”

Related Links:

— “Risks in Using Social Media to Spot Signs of Mental Distress,” Natasha Singer, New York Times, December 26, 2014.