The Philadelphia (PA) Inquirer (3/13, Giordano) reports, “In a new program developed at the Yale Child Study Center called SPACE, or Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions,” adults “are being taught to help their kids manage anxiety by reducing – lovingly and supportively – the accommodations the adults make for their children’s symptoms.” A 124-child study published online March 6 “in the Journal of the American Academy of Childhood and Adolescent Psychiatry…found this admittedly old-school approach of limiting accommodations was not only effective but appeared to work as well as…cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT).” The Inquirer adds, “Nearly a third of adolescents have had an anxiety disorder, and more than eight percent of them experience severe impairment, according to the National Institute of Mental Health.”

Related Links:

— “Childhood anxiety treatment may best be targeted at parents, study finds, “Rita Giordano, The Philadelphia Inquirer, March 13, 2019

Two public service announcements about suicide awareness and prevention which were produced by high school students in Montgomery County, Maryland, are being played in local movie theaters. From the article at Patch.Com:

Two student-produced public service announcements about suicide awareness and prevention will be shown at local movie theaters.

The students created the PSAs for a contest aimed at preventing teen suicide, which — according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention — is the second leading cause of death for youth between the ages of 10 and 19.

Read more here: Suicide PSA By High School Students To Play In Local Theaters

HealthDay (3/12, Preidt) reports that taking medications to treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (AD/HD) will not raise the risk of seizures in people with epilepsy, researchers concluded after analyzing “data from thousands of epilepsy patients in Sweden.” The findings were published online Jan. 25 in the journal Epilepsia. HealthDay adds, “Approximately nine percent of children aged two to 17 have had” a diagnosis of AD/HD, “according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.”

Related Links:

— “ADHD Meds Safe With Epilepsy, Study Finds, “Robert Preidt, HealthDay, March 12, 2019

Healio (3/12, Demko) reports that among 79 youngsters “aged 10 to 12 years presenting to the” emergency department (ED), “nearly one-third screened positive for suicide risk, according to” research conducted by Lisa Horowitz, PhD, MPH, and colleagues of the National Institute of Mental Health. The findings were published online March 7 in the journal Hospital Pediatrics.

Related Links:

— “Children as young as 10 years may be at risk for suicide, “Savannah Demko, Healio, March 12, 2019

HealthDay (3/11, Norton) reports loneliness among young adults appears to be “common – and it is a particular problem for people aged 18 to 24,” researchers concluded after surveying some 1,235 “patients at primary care offices.” The study revealed that “loneliness was most common among patients younger than 25 – with one-third reporting those feelings. In contrast, that was true for only 11 percent of adults older than 65.” The findings were published in the March/April issue of the Annals of Family Medicine.

Related Links:

— “1 in 3 Young Adults Suffers From Loneliness in U.S., “Amy Norton, HealthDay, March 11, 2019