Healio (12/28, Oldt) reports, “Lower IQ was associated with past-year fear and distress disorders and was not associated with” post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), “anxiety or eating disorders,” researchers found after analyzing “a national sample of adolescents from the 2001 to 2004 National comorbidity Survey Replication-Adolescent Supplement (n = 10,073; mean age, 15.2 years).” After adjusting for confounding factors, investigators found that “mean IQ was lower among adolescents with past-year bipolar disorder (P = .004), AD/HD (P = .002), oppositional defiant disorder (P = .007), conduct disorder (P = .02), alcohol abuse (P < .001), drug abuse (P = .02) and specific phobia (P = .001).” The findingswere published online Dec. 28 in JAMA Psychiatry. Related Links:

— “Lower IQ found in some adolescent psychiatric disorders ,”Amanda Oldt, Healio, December 28, 2016.

The New York Daily News (12/27, Dziemianowicz) reports that healthcare spending on children increased 56 percent between 1996 and 2013, researchpublished online Dec. 27 in JAMA Pediatrics. The “three conditions with the most health care spending were inpatient well-newborn care ($27.9 billion), attention- deficit/hyperactivity disorder…($20.6 billion) and well-dental care ($18.2 billion).”

HealthDay (12/27, Reinberg) reports the author of an editorial accompanying the study wrote that healthcare spending on youngsters, albeit “relatively low,” has “led to better access to care and even some better long-term outcomes for children.”

Related Links:

— “Kids’ health care costs on the rise,”Joe Dziemianowicz, The New York Daily News , December 27, 2016.

Healio (12/27, Oldt) reports post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) “was common among women receiving mindfulness therapy for depression at an urban federally qualified health center, suggesting an association between trauma and residing in a disadvantaged neighborhood,” researchers found after assessing “72 women receiving a mindfulness-based intervention for depression at an urban federally qualified health center.” The findings were published online Dec. 6 in the Journal of Racial and Ethnic Health Disparities.

Related Links:

— “Study Suggests link between violence, depression, PSTD,”Amanda Oldt, Healio, December 27, 2016.

The Boston Globe (12/27, Fernandes) reports that “the US job exodus parallels an increase in suicides,” research suggests. In fact “a one percentage point increase in unemployment correlated with an 11 percent increase in suicides, according to Peter Schott, a Yale University economist who coauthored the report with Justin Pierce, a researcher at the Federal Reserve Board.” The study authors theorize that “workers who lost their jobs may have been pushed over the edge and turned to suicide or drug addiction, lacking financial resources or community connections to get help.”

Related Links:

— “As jobs left the US, suicides rose,” Deirdre Fernandes, The Boston Globe, December 27, 2016.

Healio (12/22, Oldt) reported that two or more of certain behaviors may predict “suicide attempts in public transit stations, suggesting that observing” closed-circuit television (CCTV) “monitors may identify individuals at risk for attempting suicide.” Behaviors that may predict suicide attempts include “leaving objects on the platform, frequently looking down the tunnel, standing for long periods of time on the yellow line or continually walking on the yellow line, looking physically agitated, staring at the tracks or the tunnel for long periods of time and seeming depressed.” The findings, which pooled the results of two small studies, were published online Dec. 15 in BMC Public Health.

Related Links:

— “CCTV may identify individuals at risk suicide,”Amanda Oldt, Healio, December 22, 2016.