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Latest News Around the Web

More Parents Opting For Time-Out Instead Of Spanking To Discipline Children

Reuters (11/14, Rapaport) reports a study published in Pediatrics found that since 1988, “the proportion of middle-income mothers who think physical punishment is appropriate has dropped from 46 percent to 21 percent.” During the same time period, the “share of mothers endorsing time-out surged from 41 percent to 81 percent.” lead study author Rebecca Ryan, a psychology researcher at Georgetown University, explained, “Support for corporal punishment has been falling at least since the 1990s, in part due to social science research that suggests spanking is linked to negative outcomes for children like delinquency, antisocial behavior, psychological problems, and alcohol and drug abuse.” She added that there is “little evidence” to support that “spanking or other forms of physical discipline are effective in the long term at reducing unwanted child behaviors or encouraging children to internalize – to really believe in – parents’ rules.”

Related Links:

— “Fewer U.S. parents say they spank their kids,”Lisa Rapaport, Reuters, November 14, 2016.

Community Paramedics Trained To Provide Patients With Mental Healthcare

Kaiser Health News (11/14, Luthra) reports on community paramedics who are trained to help “psychiatric patients in need of care avoid winding up in the emergency room, where they can get ‘boarded’ for days, until they are released or a bed frees up at an inpatient facility.” After being dispatched to a scene with a patient with a potential mental health crisis, paramedics talk to the patient about “what, precisely, the issue is, asking also about issues like a patient’s mental health history, drug use and insurance status.” The information is used to determine “the next steps for the patient — maybe it is a hospital or a psych facility, or maybe it is outpatient care.” The pilot program of specialized paramedics was launched in Modesto a year ago, and “similar projects are also underway in North Carolina, Minnesota, Texas, Colorado and Georgia.”

Related Links:

— “Community Paramedics Work To Link Patients With Mental Health Care,”Shefali Luthra, Kaiser Health News, November 14, 2016.

Depression Increasing Among US Teenagers, Especially Girls

Reuters (11/14, Rapaport) reports a recent study published online Nov. 14 in the journal Pediatrics suggests the number of US teenagers and young adults with untreated depression is increasing. The study found the prevalence of depression in youth ages 12 to 17 increased from 8.7 percent in 2005 to 11.3 percent in 2014. The prevalence of depression among adults aged 18 to 25 increased from 8.8 percent to 9.6 percent during the time span. Yet the study also found “there hasn’t been much change in the proportion of teens and young adults seeking mental health treatment.”

CNN (11/14, Howard) reports Dr. Mark Olfson, a professor of psychiatry at Columbia University Medical Center and a co-author of the study, said, “The new study highlights that most adolescents with depression do not receive treatment for their symptoms and underscores the need for increased attention to this condition.” Using data from the National Surveys on Drug Use and Health, researchers “discovered that the prevalence of major depressive episodes over a 12-month period increased among girls from about 13% in 2005 to about 17% in 2014.” Comparatively, depression in boys increased from about 4 percent in 2005 to 6 percent in 2014. Cyberbullying and interpersonal stress are cited as reasons why girls are at a greater risk for depression.

HealthDay (11/14, Mozes) reports that in an editorial accompanying the study, Dr. Anne Glowinski, director of child and adolescent psychiatry education and training at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis, wrote, “There are many stressors which impact our youth….These stressors are not limited to social media and/or cyberbullying.” These may include economic factors, anxiety about the future, neighborhood violence, and, “yes, one of those things could be social media or even something not on the radar, like an increase in sleep deprivation related to excessive Internet use,” according to Glowinski.

Related Links:

— “Depression becoming more common among U.S. teens,”Lisa Rapaport, Reuters, November 14, 2016.

NYTimes Analysis Examines Mental Healthcare For Detainees At Guantánamo Bay

A more than 5,000-word New York Times (11/13, A1, Fink, Subscription Publication) analysis examines mental healthcare for detainees at Guantánamo Bay, saying that the “United States defends the quality of mental health care” at the prison as “humane and appropriate,” while “Detainees, human rights groups and doctors consulting for defense teams offer more critical assessments, describing it as negligent or ineffective in many cases.” The article highlights Lt. Cmdr. Shay Rosecrans tenure at Guantánamo, a Navy officer who “led one of the mental health teams” at the prison “over the past 15 years.” The Times notes psychiatrists and psychologists assigned to the prison “received little training for the assignment” and often reported feeling “unprepared to tend to men they were told were ‘the worst of the worst.’”

Related Links:

— “Where Even Nightmares Are Classified:
Psychiatric Care at Guantánamo
,”Sheri Fink, The New York Times, November 13, 2016.

Health Benefits To Cover It, Psychiatrist Says

In a nearly 2,000-word piece titled “How Can I Afford Mental Health Care?,” the New York Magazine (11/11, Cowles) quoted Harsh Trivedi, MD, chair of the American Psychiatric Association’s Council on Healthcare Systems and Financing, who said, “Of all Americans who are clinically depressed and need help, less than half of them are diagnosed, let alone get any kind of help for it.” Dr. Trivedi added, “Of those who do get diagnosed with clinical depression, only about 30 percent get sufficient treatment to return to their normal functioning,” a “low percentage” that “has a lot to do with lack of access to care and not being able to use your health benefits to cover it.”

Related Links:

— “How Can I Afford Mental Health Care?,”Charlotte Cowles, The New York Magazine, November 11, 2016.

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