MedPage Today (2/12, Hlavinka) reports, “Men who closely aligned with masculinity norms were more than twice as likely to die by suicide as men who did not,” research indicated. For the study, investigators identified “20,745 adolescents recruited in 1995 as part of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health),” then “matched with death records in 2014.” The study revealed that “‘high-traditional masculinity’ men – or those with at least a 73% probability of being male based on their responses to questions about things like not crying, physical fitness, and fighting – were more likely to die by suicide than men who did not identify as strongly with such norms.” At the same time, “so-called high-traditional masculinity men were also 1.45 times less likely to report suicidal ideation.” The findings were published online Feb. 12 in a research letter in JAMA Psychiatry. Healio (2/12, Gramigna) also covers the study.

Related Links:

— MedPage Today (requires login and subscription)

Healio (2/11, Gramigna) reports, “Risk reduction through family therapy, or RRFT, among adolescents resulted in within-group improvements in substance use problems and PTSD symptoms compared with treatment as usual,” researchers concluded in a study that randomized a “total of 61 participants…to RRFT and 63 to treatment as usual.” The findings were published online Feb. 5 in JAMA Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Adolescent exposure-based treatment safe, feasible for co-occurring substance abuse, PTSD symptoms, “Joe Gramigna, Healio, February 11, 2020

Healio (2/11, Gramigna) reports, “Shorter sleep duration among children was associated with increased risk for depression, anxiety, impulsive behavior and poor cognitive performance,” investigators concluded after examining “data from the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development Study, which included structural MRI data from 11,067 individuals aged 9 to 11 years.” The findings were published online Feb. 3 in the journal Molecular Psychiatry.

Related Links:

— “Children with less sleep experience increased depression, anxiety, decreased cognitive performance, “Joe Gramigna, Healio, February 11, 2020

CNN (2/11, Lamotte) reports that a study published in Lancet Psychiatry suggests that “even light exercise may help protect children against developing depression.” The study “found that 60 minutes of simple movement each day at age 12 was linked to an average 10% reduction in depression at age 18,” with the types of movement ranging “from running and biking to walking, doing chores, painting or playing an instrument.”

HealthDay (2/11, Preidt) reports in the study, “more than 4,200 participants in England wore devices that tracked their movement for at least 10 hours over at least three days when they were ages 12, 14 and 16.”

Related Links:

— “Keep your teen moving to reduce risk of depression, study says, “Sandee LaMotte, CNN, February 11, 2020

HealthDay (2/10, Mundell) reports, “Smartphones, and being on Facebook, Snapchat, TikTok and the like may be taking a big toll on teens’ mental health,” investigators concluded after poring “over dozens of studies.” The findings of the multi-study analysis were published online Feb. 10 in CMAJ.

Related Links:

— “More Evidence Links Social Media Use to Poorer Mental Health in Teens, “E.J. Mundell, HealthDay , February 10, 2020