USA Today (2/18, Healy) reported, “In one of the largest studies yet to examine how modifying television content affects the development of young children ages 3 to 5, researchers report that six months after families reduced their kids’ exposure to aggressive and violence-filled programming and increased exposure to enriching and educational programming – even without changing the number of viewing hours – kids demonstrated statistically significant improved behavior compared to children whose media diet went unchanged.” These “improvements – declines in aggression and being difficult and increases in healthy social behaviors such as empathy, helpfulness and concern for others – persisted at 12 months, says the study involving 565 families in…Pediatrics.”

The New York Times (2/18, A10, Louis, Subscription Publication) reported, “Low-income boys showed the most improvement, though the researchers could not say why. Total viewing time did not differ between the two groups.”

The Los Angeles Times (2/18, Morin) “Booster Shots” blog reports that, according to the researchers, “Although television is frequently implicated as a cause of many problems in children, our research indicates that it may also be part of the solution.”

The AP (2/19, Blankinship) reports that while “the results were modest and faded over time,” they “may hold promise for finding ways to help young children avoid aggressive, violent behavior, the study authors and other doctors said.”

The CNN (2/18) “The Chart” blog points out that currently, “the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that preschoolers and older children get only one to two hours of TV or screen time a day. But in reality, they’re really watching much more.”

The ABC News (2/18) “Medical Unit” blog reports on that study, as well as a separate study published in Pediatrics that found “young adults who spent more time in front of a TV during their childhood are significantly more likely to be arrested and exhibit aggressive behavior.” Investigators “followed more than 1,000 young people in New Zealand from birth to age 26 and monitored the amount of television they watched during the ages of 5 and 15.” The researchers found that “the more television children watched, the more likely they were to have a criminal conviction, a diagnosis of antisocial personality disorder and more aggressive personality traits.”

HealthDay (2/19, Dotinga) reports that while “the study doesn’t definitively prove that watching TV caused criminal activity or aggression…the researchers found that other factors (including poverty levels and IQ) didn’t play a role.” Also covering the first study wereTime (2/19, Rochman) “Family Matters” blog, Reuters (2/19, Pittman) and the CBS News (2/19, Jaslow) website.

Related Links:

— “Modifying kids’ TV habits may improve behavior, “Michelle Healy, USA Today, February 18, 2013.

Medwire (2/19, Davenport) reports, “Men with first-episode psychosis [FEP] have more severe symptoms than women and are less likely to achieve recovery,” according to a 578-patient study published online Feb. 8 in the journal European Psychiatry. Even though “women were significantly more likely to attempt suicide during follow up, men were significantly more likely to die, at 14% versus 1%, and more likely to commit suicide, at 2.0% versus 0.4%,” the study revealed. “Conversely, women were more likely than men to meet the researchers’ criteria for recovery, with the difference being significant at two and five years of follow-up.”

Related Links:

— “First-episode psychosis hits men hard, “Liam Davenport, Medwire News, February 19, 2013.

MedPage Today (2/18, Walsh) reported, “Whether soldiers in combat develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) depends on their perception and attention to threat, the intensity of combat they are exposed to, and genetic susceptibility,” according to a study published online Feb. 13 in JAMA Psychiatry. The study, which included 1,085 Israeli soldiers followed for two years, revealed “a significant interaction…between attention to threat and degree of combat exposure (β = −0.73, 95% CI −0.45 to −0.08, P<0.004)." In addition, "a three-way interaction was observed between pre-deployment threat bias, combat exposure, and a polymorphism in the serotonin transporter gene (β = 0.62, 95% CI 0.02 to 0.19, P<0.01)," the study found. The study was partially supported by the National Institute of Mental Health. Related Links:

— “Combat PTSD Tied to Intensity of Fight, “Nancy Walsh, Medpage Today, February 17, 2013.

HealthDay (2/19, Dotinga) reports, “A protective effect in females may help explain one of the biggest mysteries of autism: Why boys are five times more likely to develop the developmental brain disorder than girls.” The study of “more than 3,800 pairs of non-identical twins from Great Britain and more than 6,000 pairs of non-identical twins from Sweden” indicated that “developing females are much better able than males to fight off genetic pressure to develop symptoms of autism.” The research was published online Feb. 18 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Related Links:

— “Researchers Detect an Anti-Autism Advantage in Females,” Randy Dotinga, HealthDay, February 18, 2013.

Medwire (2/1) says Valeria Mondelli at King’s College London led a study, published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research, that found schizophrenia patients “commonly have a poor diet,” which “may partly account for the increased incidence of metabolic abnormalities in these patients. The poor diet was mainly characterized by a high intake of saturated fat and calories and a low consumption of fiber and fruit.” The researchers wrote, “We can only suggest that a poor diet represents one of the factors involved in the development of metabolic abnormalities.”

Related Links:

— “Poor diet provides clue to metabolic abnormalities in schizophrenia, “Lucy Piper, Medwire News, February 1, 2013.