Screen time might boost depression, suicide behaviors in teens
A new study finds that teens, especially girls, who spend several hours per day on phones and tablets are more likely to be depressed and have suicide-related outcomes
November 14, 2017
Science Daily/San Diego State University
Increased time spent in front of a screen -- in the form of computers, cell phones and tablets -- might have contributed to a recent uptick in symptoms of depression and suicide-related behaviors and thoughts in American young people, especially girls.
"These increases in mental health issues among teens are very alarming," Twenge said. "Teens are telling us they are struggling, and we need to take that very seriously."
Twenge, along with SDSU graduate student Gabrielle Martin and colleagues Thomas Joiner and Megan Rogers at Florida State University, looked at questionnaire data from more than 500,000 U.S. teens found in two anonymous, nationally representative surveys that have been conducted since 1991. They also looked at data suicide statistics kept by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
They found that the suicide rate for girls aged 13-18 increased by 65 percent between 2010 and 2015, and the number of girls experiencing so-called suicide-related outcomes -- feeling hopeless, thinking about suicide, planning for suicide or attempting suicide -- rose by 12 percent. The number of teen girls reporting symptoms of severe depression increased by 58 percent.
"When I first saw these sudden increases in mental health issues, I wasn't sure what was causing them," said Twenge, author of iGen: Why Today's Super-Connected Kids Are Growing Up Less Rebellious, More Tolerant, Less Happy -- And Completely Unprepared for Adulthood. "But these same surveys ask teens how they spend their leisure time, and between 2010 and 2015, teens increasingly spent more time with screens and less time on other activities. That was by far the largest change in their lives during this five-year period, and it's not a good formula for mental health."
The researchers returned to the data and looked to see if there was a statistical correlation between screen-time and depressive symptoms and suicide-related outcomes. They found that 48 percent of teens who spent five or more hours per day on electronic devices reported at least one suicide-related outcome, compared to only 28 percent of those who spent less than an hour a day on devices. Depressive symptoms were more common in teens who spent a lot of time on their devices, as well.
The findings fit with previous studies that have linked spending more time on social media to unhappiness.
On the positive side, the researchers found that spending time away from screen and engaging in in-person social interaction, sports and exercise, doing homework, attending religious services, etc., was linked to having fewer depressive symptoms and suicide-related outcomes. The researchers reported their findings today in the journal Clinical Psychological Science.
While economic struggles are generally thought to be linked to depression and suicide, the U.S. economy was improving between 2010 and 2015, so that is unlikely to be the primary driver of these increases, Twenge noted.
"Although we can't say for sure that the growing use of smartphones caused the increase in mental health issues, that was by far the biggest change in teens' lives between 2010 and 2015," she said.
The good news? You don't have to totally give up on electronic devices to lower your risk for depression and suicide-relayed outcomes. Twenge said that limiting screen-time to one or two hours per day would statistically fall into the safe zone for device usage.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/11/171114091313.htm
What can Twitter reveal about people with ADHD?
November 13, 2017
Science Daily/University of Pennsylvania
People with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder tend to tweet using words like 'hate' or 'disappointed,' messages related to lack of focus, self-regulation, intention and failure and expressions of mental, physical and emotional exhaustion, according to recent research. Better understanding this condition can help clinicians more effectively treat patients.
"On social media, where you can post your mental state freely, you get a lot of insight into what these people are going through, which might be rare in a clinical setting," said Guntuku, a postdoctoral researcher working with the World Well-Being Project in the School of Arts and Sciences and the Penn Medicine Center for Digital Health. "In brief 30- or 60-minute sessions with patients, clinicians might not get all manifestations of the condition, but on social media you have the full spectrum."
Guntuku and Ungar, a professor of computer and information science with appointments in the School of Engineering and Applied Science, the School of Arts and Sciences, the Wharton School and Penn Medicine, turned to Twitter to try to understand what people with ADHD spend their time talking about. The researchers collected 1.3 million publicly available tweets posted by almost 1,400 users who had self-reported diagnoses of ADHD, plus an equivalent control set that matched the original group in age, gender and duration of overall social-media activity. They then ran models looking at factors like personality and posting frequency.
"Some of the findings are in line with what's already known in the ADHD literature," Guntuku said. For example, social-media posters in the experimental group often talked about using marijuana for medicinal purposes. "Our coauthor, Russell Ramsay, who treats people with ADHD, said this is something he's observed in conversations with patients," Guntuku added.
The researchers also found that people with ADHD tended to post messages related to lack of focus, self-regulation, intention and failure, as well as expressions of mental, physical and emotional exhaustion. They often used words like "hate," "disappointed," "cry" and "sad" more frequently than the control group and often posted during hours of the day when the majority of people sleep, from midnight to 6 a.m.
"People with ADHD are experiencing more mood swings and more negativity," Ungar said. "They tend to have problems self-regulating."
This could partially explain why they enjoy social media's quick feedback loop, he said. A well-timed or intriguing tweet could yield a positive response within minutes, propelling continued use of the online outlet.
Using information gleaned from this study and others, Ungar and Guntuku said they plan to build condition-specific apps that offer insight into several conditions, including ADHD, stress, anxiety, depression and opioid addiction. They aim to factor in facets of individuals, their personality or how severe their ADHD is, for instance, as well as what triggers particular symptoms.
The applications will also include mini-interventions. A recommendation for someone who can't sleep might be to turn off the phone an hour before going to bed. If anxiety or stress is the major factor, the app might suggest an easy exercise like taking a deep breath, then counting to 10 and back to zero.
"If you're prone to certain problems, certain things set you off; the idea is to help set you back on track," Ungar said.
Better understanding ADHD has the potential to help clinicians treat such patients more successfully, but having this information also has a downside: It can reveal aspects of a person's personality unintentionally, simply by analyzing words posted on Twitter. The researchers also acknowledge that the 50-50 split of ADHD to non-ADHD study participants isn't true to life; only about 8 percent of adults in the U.S. have the disorder, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. In addition, people in this study self-reported an ADHD diagnosis rather than having such a determination come from a physician interaction or medical record.
Despite these limitations, the researchers say the work has strong potential to help clinicians understand the varying manifestations of ADHD, and it could be used as a complementary feedback tool to give ADHD sufferers personal insights.
"The facets of better-studied conditions like depression are pretty well understood," Ungar said. "ADHD is less well studied. Understanding the components that some people have or don't have, the range of coping mechanisms that people use -- that all leads to a better understanding of the condition."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/11/171113111016.htm
Insomnia linked to alcohol-use among adolescents
November 10, 2017
Science Daily/Rutgers University
'Parents, educators, and therapists should consider insomnia to be a risk marker for alcohol use, and alcohol use a risk marker for insomnia, among early adolescents,' writes Rutgers-Camden researcher Naomi Marmorstein in the study, published recently in the journal Addictive Behaviors.
"Parents, educators, and therapists should consider insomnia to be a risk marker for alcohol use, and alcohol use a risk marker for insomnia, among early adolescents," writes Rutgers-Camden researcher Naomi Marmorstein in the study, published recently in the journal Addictive Behaviors.
Marmorstein, a professor of psychology at Rutgers-Camden, examined the associations between alcohol use and four sleep-related issues: initial insomnia; daytime sleepiness; sleep irregularity, defined as the difference in weekday and weekend bedtimes; and disturbed sleep, characterized as nightmares, snoring, sleepwalking, wetting the bed, and talking in sleep.
When sleep problems were found to be associated with frequency of alcohol use, she examined whether symptoms of mental health problems or levels of parental monitoring accounted for these associations.
The research focused on seventh- and eighth-grade students participating in the Camden Youth Development Study, an initiative funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health. The study examines the development of mental health problems and resilience among at-risk youth.
Youth completed questionnaires in the classroom that asked how long it took for them to fall asleep, what times they usually went to bed on a weekday and on the weekend or vacation night, how often they experienced sleep disturbances, and whether they ever fell asleep in class or had trouble staying awake after school. They were also asked the frequency of any alcohol use in the previous four months.
In addition, students answered questions which were used to assess depressive symptoms, as well as evidence of conduct disorder symptoms.
Teachers also completed questionnaires, which were analyzed to determine the presence of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder symptoms.
Overall, there were associations between alcohol and both insomnia and daytime sleepiness. Importantly, Marmorstein determined that symptoms of mental health problems and parental monitoring did not account for the link between insomnia and alcohol use.
"These findings indicate that insomnia may be a unique risk marker for alcohol use among young adolescents," she says.
The Rutgers-Camden researcher notes that the findings are consistent with associations found between insomnia and alcohol among older adolescents and adults.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/11/171110164022.htm
Academic performance predicts risk of suicide attempt in adults
November 8, 2017
Science Daily/Wiley
Poor academic performance, measured as grade point average (GPA) at age 16, was a robust and strong predictor of suicide attempt up to middle age.
For the study, researchers followed 26,315 Swedish girls and boys up to maximum 46 years of age. After controlling for potential confounding factors including childhood IQ, those in the lowest GPA quartile had a near five-fold higher risk of suicide attempt than those in the highest quartile.
"This is a highly elevated risk, and it is remarkable that it reaches far into adulthood. We would however need to know more to identify helpful interventions -- for example, is school failure in itself a risk factor, or is poor performance rather an indicator of vulnerability?" said lead author Dr. Alma Sorberg Wallin, of the Karolinska Institutet, in Stockholm, Sweden.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/11/171108092303.htm
Can virtual reality be used to manage pain at a pediatric hospital?
Study finds that virtual reality is effective in reducing pain during certain medical procedures
November 7, 2017
Science Daily/Children's Hospital Los Angeles
In a study conducted to determine if virtual reality (VR) can be effectively used for pain management during medical procedures such as blood draw, findings showed that VR significantly reduced patients' and parents' perception of acute pain, anxiety and general distress during the procedure.
Virtual reality has emerged into popular culture with an ever-widening array of applications including clinical use in a pediatric healthcare center. Children undergo necessary yet painful and distressing medical procedures every day, but very few non-pharmaceutical interventions have been found to successfully manage the pain and anxiety associated with these procedures. Investigators at Children's Hospital Los Angeles have conducted a study to determine if virtual reality (VR) can be effectively used for pain management during blood draw. Their findings showed that VR significantly reduced patients' and parents' perception of acute pain, anxiety and general distress during the procedure. The results of the study are published in the Journal of Pediatric Psychology.
"Given the immersive and engaging nature of the VR experience, this technology has the capacity to act as a preventative intervention transforming the blood draw experience into a less distressing and potentially pain-free medical procedure, particularly for patients with more anxiety about having their blood drawn," said Jeffrey I. Gold, PhD, the director of the Pediatric Pain Management Clinic at Children's Hospital Los Angeles.
While previous research supported the effectiveness of distraction during painful procedures, specifically needle pain, the investigators hypothesized that the new VR technology, an arguably more powerful and immersive intervention could be even more effective at reducing pain and anxiety.
Gold and study co-author Nicole E. Mahrer, PhD, of the Department of Anesthesiology Critical Care Medicine at CHLA, theorize that 'VR analgesia' or pain control originates from the neurobiological interplay of the parts of the brain that regulate the visual, auditory, and touch sensory experience to produce an analgesic effect.
For the study, they recruited patients, ages 10 to 21 years, the patient's caregiver and the phlebotomist in the outpatient blood draw clinic, and randomized them to receive either standard of care, which typically includes a topical anesthetic cream or spray and a movie playing in the room, or standard of care plus the virtual reality game when undergoing routine blood draw. Looking at pre-procedural and post-procedural standardized measures of pain, anxiety and satisfaction, researchers found that VR is feasible, tolerated, and well-liked by patients, their parents and the phlebotomists.
"VR, especially immersive VR, draws heavily on the limited cognitive resource of attention by drawing the user's attention away from the hospital environment and the medical procedures and into the virtual world," said Gold who is also a professor of Anesthesiology, Pediatrics, and Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences at the Keck School of Medicine of USC.
Given the significant concerns about problematic opioid use, evidence-based support for non-pharmaceutical inventions may lead to use of VR for pain management during certain medical procedures and a decreased need for narcotics.
"Ultimately, the aim of future VR investigations should be to develop flexible VR environments to target specific acute and chronic pain conditions," added Gold.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/11/171107122852.htm
Healthiest college students keep weight down, spirits up
November 7, 2017
Science Daily/University of Michigan
Optimists and happy people are healthier overall, enjoying lower blood pressure and less depression and anxiety, among other measures, research shows.
Research shows that optimists and happy people are healthier overall, enjoying lower blood pressure and less depression and anxiety, among other measures.
However, data on the effect of weight and Body Mass Index on physical and mental health are rare -- especially among college students, who suffer high rates of anxiety and depression and often neglect physical self-care and exercise.
To that end, researchers from the University of Michigan and Fudan University in China set out to learn the extent to which BMI and positive outlook affect the physical and mental health of college students in China's Fudan University.
They found that a positive outlook and BMI both contributed significantly to good health, said Weiyun Chen, associate professor of health and fitness at the U-M School of Kinesiology.
Researchers asked 925 students to rate four indicators of psychological well-being: hope, gratitude, life satisfaction and subjective happiness. They also calculated students' BMI based on self-reported body weight and height. To assess physical and mental health, researchers asked students various questions about their sleep quality and how often they felt healthy, energized, worthless, fidgety, anxious or depressed.
Chen said that taken together, the four psychological variables and BMI accounted for 41 percent of the total variance in health. Individually, subjective happiness had the most significant impact, followed by hope, and then BMI.
By themselves, gratitude and life satisfaction didn't influence overall health. Also, interestingly, BMI was correlated with physical and overall health, but not with hope, gratitude, life satisfaction or mental health.
In light of the intense academic pressure Chinese college students face, especially at elite institutions like Fudan, Chen said she was surprised by how many students rated themselves happy and healthy. This could point to China's emphasis on well-being in schools.
"They have structured, organized physical educations classes," Chen said. "It's not just fitness, it's a variety of things so you can meet different people's needs. They realized that emphasizing only academics isn't good for overall health, and that they needed to emphasize the wellness part."
These numbers might look different for college students in the U.S., where two of three adults are overweight or obese, and 17 percent of youth ages 2-19 are considered obese, according to the CDC.
By contrast, 714 Fudan students, or 77.2 percent, were classified as normal body weight, while only 83 students were overweight, and just 5 students were obese, with 123 students considered underweight.
"Over the past 20 years, the United States has shrunk physical education in elementary school and in college," Chen said. "In China, especially in the past decade, they have started to emphasize physical education, and they are taking a holistic, whole person approach."
Chen said the findings suggest that universities should creatively design wellness programs and centers that dynamically integrate body, mind and spirit into a seamless unit.
The study has several limitations: all students were recruited from one university, and the results cannot be generalized; the research design prevented establishing causal effects; and the study did not account for gender differences.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/11/171107112415.htm
Postnatal depression has life-long impact on mother-child relations
February 20, 2018
Science Daily/University of Kent
Postnatal depression (PND) can impact the quality of relationships between mother and child into adult life, and have a negative influence on the quality of relationships between grandmothers and grandchildren, new research has discovered.
Now, research led by Dr Sarah Myers and overseen by Dr Sarah Johns in the School of Anthropology and Conservation has found that PND continues to impact mother-child relationships into later life and affects multi-generational relationships too.
They surveyed 305 women mainly from the UK and US with an average age of 60 and who had given birth to an average of 2.2 children. Their children ranged in age from 8 to 48, with an average age of 29 and many of whom now had their own children. This wide-ranging data set allowed them to assess the impact of PND over a longer time frame than has been hitherto examined.
Their data showed that women who had PND reported lower relationship quality with their offspring, including those children who are now adults and that the worse the PND had been the worse the later relationship quality was.
While mothers who experienced depressive symptoms at other times had worse relationships with all of their children, PND was found to be specifically detrimental to the relationship mothers had with their child whose birth triggered the PND.
This suggests that factors which affect mother-child relationships in early infancy can have lifelong consequences on the relationship that is formed over time.
Another discovery from the research was that women who suffer from PND with a child, and then in later life become a grandmother via that child, form a less emotionally close relationship with that grandchild. This continues the negative cycle associated with PND as the importance of grandmothers in helping with the rearing of grandchildren is well-documented.
The researchers hope the findings will encourage the ongoing development and implantation of preventative measures to combat PND. Investment in prevention will not only improve mother-child relationships, but also future grandmother-grandchild relationships.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/02/180220122917.htm
Weekly fish consumption linked to better sleep, higher IQ
December 21, 2017
Science Daily/University of Pennsylvania
Regular fish consumption has been shown to improve cognition. It's also been known to help with sleep. A new study connects all three for the first time. The team found that children who eat fish at least once a week sleep better and have higher IQs by an average of 4 points.
Children who eat fish at least once a week sleep better and have IQ scores that are 4 points higher, on average, than those who consume fish less frequently or not at all, according to new findings from the University of Pennsylvania published this week in Scientific Reports, a Nature journal.
Previous studies showed a relationship between omega-3s, the fatty acids in many types of fish, and improved intelligence, as well as omega-3s and better sleep. But they've never all been connected before. This work, conducted by Jianghong Liu, Jennifer Pinto-Martin and Alexandra Hanlon of the School of Nursing and Penn Integrates Knowledge Professor Adrian Raine, reveals sleep as a possible mediating pathway, the potential missing link between fish and intelligence.
"This area of research is not well-developed. It's emerging," said Liu, lead author on the paper and an associate professor of nursing and public health. "Here we look at omega-3s coming from our food instead of from supplements."
For the work, a cohort of 541 9- to 11-year-olds in China, 54 percent boys and 46 percent girls, completed a questionnaire about how often they consumed fish in the past month, with options ranging from "never" to "at least once per week." They also took the Chinese version of an IQ test called the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-Revised, which examines verbal and non-verbal skills such as vocabulary and coding.
Their parents then answered questions about sleep quality using the standardized Children Sleep Habits Questionnaire, which included topics such as sleep duration and frequency of night waking or daytime sleepiness. Finally, the researchers controlled for demographic information, including parental education, occupation and marital status and number of children in the home.
Analyzing these data points, the Penn team found that children who reported eating fish weekly scored 4.8 points higher on the IQ exams than those who said they "seldom" or "never" consumed fish. Those whose meals sometimes included fish scored 3.3 points higher. In addition, increased fish consumption was associated with fewer disturbances of sleep, which the researchers say indicates better overall sleep quality.
"Lack of sleep is associated with antisocial behavior; poor cognition is associated with antisocial behavior," said Raine, who has appointments in the School of Arts and Sciences and Penn's Perelman School of Medicine. "We have found that omega-3 supplements reduce antisocial behavior, so it's not too surprising that fish is behind this."
Pinto-Martin, who is executive director of Penn's Center for Public Health Initiatives, as well as the Viola MacInnes/Independence Professor of Nursing and a professor of epidemiology in Penn Medicine, sees strong potential for the implications of this research.
"It adds to the growing body of evidence showing that fish consumption has really positive health benefits and should be something more heavily advertised and promoted," she said. "Children should be introduced to it early on." That could be as young as 10 months, as long as the fish has no bones and has been finely chopped, but should start by around age 2.
"Introducing the taste early makes it more palatable," Pinto-Martin said. "It really has to be a concerted effort, especially in a culture where fish is not as commonly served or smelled. Children are sensitive to smell. If they're not used to it, they may shy away from it."
Given the young age of this study group, Liu and colleagues chose not to analyze the details participants reported about the types of fish consumed, though they plan to do so for work on an older cohort in the future. The researchers also want to add to this current observational study to establish, through randomized controlled trials, that eating fish can lead to better sleep, better school performance and other real-life, practical outcomes.
For the moment, the researchers recommend incrementally incorporating additional fish into a diet; consumption even once a week moves a family into the "high" fish-eating group as defined in the study.
"Doing that could be a lot easier than nudging children about going to bed," Raine said. "If the fish improves sleep, great. If it also improves cognitive performance -- like we've seen here -- even better. It's a double hit."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/12/171221101341.htm
Students' PTSD symptoms fluctuate greatly during first year of college
Most see symptoms moderate, but alcohol consumption can make improvement less likely
July 13, 2016
Science Daily/University at Buffalo
A new study is helping researchers better understand how post-traumatic stress disorder fluctuates in students during their first year of college.
The segment of the young adult population with PTSD is particularly at risk for problem drinking and other harmful behaviors that can potentially exacerbate symptoms, according to Jennifer Read, a professor in UB's Department of Psychology and corresponding author of the paper published in the journal Psychological Trauma: Theory, Research and Policy.
"You have a group of young people exposed to some trauma who are away from many of the things that would otherwise provide them with support," says Read. "Even those who are commuting have still entered into a new way of life."
The researchers analyzed a class of 649 freshman who had suffered some kind of trauma, using a 17-question form designed to assess PTSD symptoms in civilians. Based on their answers, the students were separated into three categories: those with severe symptoms, moderate symptoms or no symptoms.
Each participant was subsequently assessed five additional times during the year: three times during their first semester and twice during their second semester.
The findings suggest significant early variations in how people's symptoms fluctuate. Most of the change is happening when students first transition to college. That's when the symptoms are malleable.
However, as the students progressed through their freshman year, they became more fixed in their categories, a finding that points to the possible benefits of early intervention.
"This is relevant to college administrators for a few different reasons," says Read. "One is to know that there is a class of students whose symptoms are getting worse or staying bad. While students are first transitioning the symptoms are the most malleable. So early detection and intervention are important.
"If these people can be identified, then outreach could be provided," she says.
Many of the students, however, saw their symptoms moderate, a finding that informs researchers on how people recover naturally, according to Read.
"It's encouraging that people with PTSD symptoms are getting better on their own," says Read. "Resilience is common in human behavior. People can have bad things happen to them, but will most likely be okay. It doesn't mean they won't affected, or that they won't be changed in some way, but they will probably be okay."
Although resolution of PTSD symptoms was the most common pattern in the study's participants, Read cautions that there is a subset of people who arrive as college freshman with PSTD and see no change in their condition.
"Drinking affects this," says Read, who has conducted previous research on the intersection of PTSD and alcohol consumption. "If someone is drinking regularly or excessively, the likelihood is less that they'll move from a high category to a lower category."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/07/160713152201.htm
Children, youth take longer to fully recover from concussion
Concussion research studied the prolonged difficulty in cognitive-motor integration in 50 children and adolescents with a history of concussion
May 16, 2016
Science Daily/York University
The findings indicate that those in the age group of eight and 16 are not only vulnerable to concussions, but because their brain is still developing, they are neurologically more fragile than adults for performing tasks that require cognitive motor integration following a concussion
York University concussion experts report that children and youth take longer to fully recover from a concussion than previously thought.
After a concussion, young athletes usually rejoin their teams in a few weeks if they do not have any active symptoms. However, it might take up to two years to fully recover from the injury before they can play as skillfully as their teammates with no history of concussion, according Professor Lauren Sergio in the Faculty of Health.
"Performing motor tasks, guided by what we see, is crucial in skill-based activities such as sports," says Sergio. "But the current return to sport assessment doesn't test to see if the injured person has regained this ability. Because of this often children and youth who have had a concussion end up returning to normal activities before they are fully recovered. We believe this makes them more vulnerable to another concussion."
The findings indicate that those in the age group of eight and 16 are not only vulnerable to concussions, but because their brain is still developing, they are neurologically more fragile than adults for performing tasks that require cognitive motor integration following a concussion.
The latest research at Sergio's lab studied the prolonged difficulty in cognitive-motor integration in 50 children and adolescents with a history of concussion. Their performance was compared with 49 who have never had a concussion.
Participants in both the groups were asked to perform two different tasks on a dual-touchscreen laptop. In one task target location and motor action were aligned. In the other task that tested cognitive-motor integration, the required movement was not aligned with the guiding visual target and required simultaneous thinking for successful performance.
"We noticed significant difficulty in completing the tasks among those with concussion history," says Marc Dalecki, postdoctoral candidate and lead author. "In fact, it took many of the children two years after the concussion to have a similar performance on the task as children who did not have a history of concussion."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/05/160516181223.htm
Removing digital devices from the bedroom can improve sleep for children, teens
November 2, 2017
Science Daily/Penn State
Removing electronic media from the bedroom and encouraging a calming bedtime routine are among recommendations researchers outline in a recent manuscript on digital media and sleep in childhood and adolescence.
The manuscript appears in the first-ever special supplement on this topic in Pediatrics and is based on previous studies that suggest the use of digital devices before bedtime leads to insufficient sleep.
The recommendations, for clinicians and parents, are:
1. Make sleep a priority by talking with family members about the importance of sleep and healthy sleep expectations;
2. Encourage a bedtime routine that includes calming activities and avoids electronic media use;
3. Encourage families to remove all electronic devices from their child or teen's bedroom, including TVs, video games, computers, tablets and cell phones;
4. Talk with family members about the negative consequences of bright light in the evening on sleep; and
5. If a child or adolescent is exhibiting mood or behavioral problems, consider insufficient sleep as a contributing factor.
"Recent reviews of scientific literature reveal that the vast majority of studies find evidence for an adverse association between screen-based media consumption and sleep health, primarily delayed bedtimes and reduced total sleep duration," said Orfeu Buxton, associate professor of biobehavioral health at Penn State and an author on the manuscript.
The reasons behind this adverse association likely include time spent on screens replacing time spent sleeping; mental stimulation from media content; and the effects of light interrupting sleep cycles, according to the researchers.
Buxton and other researchers are further exploring this topic. They are working to understand if media use affects the timing and duration of sleep among children and adolescents; the role of parenting and family practices; the links between screen time and sleep quality and tiredness; and the influence of light on circadian physiology and sleep health among children and adolescents.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/11/171102121003.htm
Depression is on the rise in the US, especially among young teens
October 30, 2017
Science Daily/Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health
Depression is on the rise in the United States. From 2005 to 2015, depression rose significantly among Americans age 12 and older with the most rapid increases seen in young people. This is the first study to identify trends in depression by gender, income, and education over the past decade.
This is the first study to identify trends in depression by gender, income, and education over the past decade.
"Depression appears to be increasing among Americans overall, and especially among youth," said Renee Goodwin, PhD, of the Department of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health, who led the research. "Because depression impacts a significant percentage of the U.S. population and has serious individual and societal consequences, it is important to understand whether and how the prevalence of depression has changed over time so that trends can inform public health and outreach efforts."
The results show that depression increased significantly among persons in the U.S. from 2005 to 2015, from 6.6 percent to 7.3 percent. Notably, the rise was most rapid among those ages 12 to 17, increasing from 8.7 percent in 2005 to 12.7 percent in 2015.
Data were drawn from 607,520 respondents to the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, an annual U.S. study of persons ages 12 and over. The researchers examined the prevalence of past-year depression annually among respondents based on DSM-IV criteria.
The increase in rates of depression was most rapid among the youngest and oldest age groups, whites, the lowest income and highest income groups, and those with the highest education levels. These results are in line with recent findings on increases in drug use, deaths due to drug overdose, and suicide.
"Depression is most common among those with least access to any health care, including mental health professionals. This includes young people and those with lower levels of income and education," noted Goodwin. "Despite this trend, recent data suggest that treatment for depression has not increased, and a growing number of Americans, especially socioeconomically vulnerable individuals and young persons, are suffering from untreated depression. Depression that goes untreated is the strongest risk factor for suicide behavior and recent studies show that suicide attempts have increased in recent years, especialy among young women."
Depression frequently remains undiagnosed, yet it is among the most treatable mental disorders, noted the researchers. "Identifying subgroups that are experiencing significant increases in depression can help guide the allocation of resources toward avoiding or reducing the individual and societal costs associated with depression," said Goodwin.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/10/171030134631.htm
Early age of drinking leads to neurocognitive and neuropsychological damage
October 30, 2017
Science Daily/Research Society on Alcoholism
Although drinking by U.S. adolescents has decreased during the last decade, more than 20 percent of U.S. high-school students continue to drink alcohol before the age of 14 years. This can have adverse effects on their neurodevelopment. Little is known about how the age of alcohol-use onset influences brain development. This is the first study to assess the association between age of adolescent drinking onset and neurocognitive performance, taking into account pre-existing cognitive function.
The researchers examined data from a longitudinal study on the neurocognitive effects of substance use in adolescents: 215 adolescents (127 boys, 88 girls) with minimal alcohol use experience were administered a neuropsychological test battery, which was repeated an average of 6.8 years later. Analyses examined whether earlier ages of onset for first and weekly alcohol use adversely affected neurocognition, controlling for substance-use severity, and familial and social environment factors.
Results showed that an earlier onset of drinking increases the risk for alcohol-related neurocognitive vulnerabilities, and that the initiation of any or weekly alcohol use at younger ages is a risk factor for poorer, subsequent neuropsychological functioning. More specifically, an earlier age of onset of first drinking predicted poorer performance in the domains of psychomotor speed and visual attention, and an earlier age of onset of weekly drinking predicted poorer performances on tests of cognitive inhibition and working memory. The authors suggested that these findings have important implications for public policies related to the legal drinking age and prevention strategies and further research on these effects is warranted.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/10/171030131607.htm
Large declines seen in teen substance abuse, delinquency
Surveys over a decade indicate positive behavioral shifts
October 25, 2017
Science Daily/Washington University School of Medicine
In recent years, teens have become far less likely to abuse alcohol, nicotine and illicit drugs, according to researchers. Teens also are less likely to engage in behaviors like fighting and stealing, and the researchers believe the declines in substance use and delinquency are connected.
More than a decade of data indicates teens have become far less likely to abuse alcohol, nicotine and illicit drugs, and they also are less likely to engage in delinquent behaviors, such as fighting and stealing, according to results of a national survey analyzed by researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
The data come from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, an annual survey of 12- to 17-year-olds from all 50 states that is sponsored by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The data include information from 2003 through 2014, the last year for which survey numbers are available. A total of 210,599 teens -- 13,000 to 18,500 each year -- were part of the study.
The findings are reported Oct. 25 in the journal Psychological Medicine.
The researchers found that the number of substance-use disorders among 12- to 17-year olds had declined by 49 percent over the 12-year span, along with a simultaneous 34 percent decline in delinquent behaviors, such as fighting, assault, stealing, selling drugs or carrying a handgun.
The drop in substance abuse among teens parallels findings in other recent surveys, but until now no one has looked at how the drop-off may be linked to other behavioral issues.
"We've known that teens overall are becoming less likely to engage in risky behaviors, and that's good news," said first author Richard A. Grucza, PhD, a professor of psychiatry. "But what we learned in this study is that the declines in substance abuse are connected to declines in delinquency. This suggests the changes have been driven more by changes in adolescents themselves more than by policies to reduce substance abuse or delinquent behavior."
Other researchers have found that teens are delaying sex and using seat belts more often than their parents and grandparents. Grucza's team focused on substance-use disorders -- involving alcohol, nicotine, marijuana, opioids and the abuse of other prescription drugs or nonprescription drugs -- and delinquent behaviors.
"It's not clear what is driving the parallel declines," Grucza said. "New policies -- including things like higher cigarette taxes and stricter anti-bullying policies -- certainly have a positive effect. But seeing these trends across multiple behaviors suggests that larger environmental factors are at work. These might include reductions in childhood lead exposure, lower rates of child abuse and neglect, and better mental health care for children."
Although heroin and opioid abuse have become epidemic in many areas of the United States, the use among teens has fallen, according to the survey data.
"Opioid problems continue to increase among adults," he said. "But among the 12- to 17-year-old population, we saw a drop of nearly 50 percent."
Based on the survey data, Grucza and his team estimated that in 2014 there were nearly 700,000 fewer adolescents with substance-use disorders than in 2003. And because it's possible for a person to be addicted to nicotine while abusing alcohol or marijuana, the researchers estimate the total number of substance-use disorders among adolescents declined by about 2 million.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/10/171025090515.htm
Living close to green spaces is associated with better attention in children
An ISGlobal study analyses for the first time lifelong residential exposure to greenness in children
October 25, 2017
Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal)
How do green spaces affect cognitive development in children? A new study concludes that children with more greenness around their homes may develop better attention capacities.
Natural surroundings, including green spaces, may be beneficial for brain development in children, but evidence is still limited. A previous ISGlobal study already indicated that green spaces within and surrounding schools could enhance cognitive development in children between 7 and 10 years of age. In the current study, the authors expanded on this finding by evaluating the impact of greenness surrounding all the residential addresses of children since birth and characterizing cognitive development at earlier stages in life.
The analysis, published in Environment Health Perspectives, was based on data from 1,500 children of the INMA -- Environment and Childhood Project cohort in Sabadell and Valencia, collected during 2003-2013. The ISGlobal team analysed residential surrounding greenness -- at 100, 300 and 500 metres distance- at birth, 4-5 years and 7 years of age. Two types of attention tests were performed at 4-5 and 7 years of age. The research shows that children with higher greenness around their homes had better scores in the attention tests.
Payam Dadvand, ISGlobal researcher and first author of the study, emphasizes "this is the first time that the impact of lifelong residential exposure to green spaces on attention capacity in children has been studied." These results "underline the importance of green areas in cities for children's health and brain development," says Dadvand.
Jordi Sunyer, study coordinator and head of the Child Health Programme at ISGlobal, points out that "the possibility that exposure to different types of vegetation might have different impacts on neurodevelopment remains an open question." Therefore, Sunyer considers further studies should be done in other settings with different climates and vegetation.
"Green spaces in cities promote social connections and physical activity and reduce exposure to air pollution and noise, and are therefore essential for the development of the future generations' brains" adds the study coordinator.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/10/171025103123.htm
School year 'relative age' causing bias in ADHD diagnosis
October 9, 2017
Science Daily/University of Nottingham
Younger primary school children are more likely to be diagnosed with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) than their older peers within the same school year, new research has shown.
The study, led by a child psychiatrist at The University of Nottingham with researchers at the University of Turku in Finland, suggests that adults involved in raising concerns over a child's behaviour -- such as parents and teachers -- may be misattributing signs of relative immaturity as symptoms of the disorder.
In their research, published in The Lancet Psychiatry, the experts suggest that greater flexibility in school starting dates should be offered for those children who may be less mature than their same school-year peers.
Kapil Sayal, Professor of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry at the University's School of Medicine and the Centre for ADHD and Neurodevelopmental Disorders Across the Lifespan at the Institute of Mental Health in Nottingham, was the lead author on the study.
He said: "The findings of this research have a range of implications for teachers, parents and clinicians. With an age variation of up to 12 months in the same class, teachers and parents may misattribute a child's immaturity. This might lead to younger children in the class being more likely to be referred for an assessment for ADHD.
"Parents and teachers as well as clinicians who are undertaking ADHD assessments should keep in mind the child's relative age. From an education perspective, there should be flexibility with an individualised approach to best meets the child's needs."
Evidence suggests that worldwide, the incidence of ADHD among school age children is, at around five per cent, fairly uniform. However, there are large differences internationally in the rates of clinical diagnosis and treatment.
Although this may partially reflect the availability of and access to services, the perceptions of parents and teachers also play an important role in recognising children who may be affected by ADHD, as information they provide is used as part of the clinical assessment.
The study centred on whether the so-called 'relative age effect' -- the perceived differences in abilities and development between the youngest and oldest children in the same year group -- could affect the incidence of diagnosis of ADHD.
Adults may be benchmarking the development and abilities of younger children against their older peers in the same year group and inadvertently misinterpreting immaturity for more serious problems.
Previous studies have suggested that this effect plays an important role in diagnosis in countries where higher numbers of children are diagnosed and treated for ADHD, leading to concerns that clinicians may be over-diagnosing the disorder.
The latest study aimed to look at whether the effect also plays a significant role in the diagnosis of children in countries where the prescribing rates for ADHD are relatively low.
It used nationwide population data from all children in Finland born between 1991 and 2004 who were diagnosed with ADHD from the age of seven years -- school starting age -- onwards. In Finland, children start school during the calendar year they turn 7 years of age, with the school year starting in mid-August. Therefore, the eldest in a school year are born in January (aged 7 years and 7 months) and the youngest in December (6 years and 7 months).
The results showed that younger children were more likely to be diagnosed with ADHD than their older same-year peers -- boys by 26 per cent and girls by 31 per cent.
For children under the age of 10 years, this association got stronger over time -- in the more recent years 2004-2011, children born in May to August were 37 per cent more likely to be diagnosed and those born in September to December 64 per cent, compared to the oldest children born in January to April
The study found that this 'relative age affect' could not be explained by other behavioural or developmental disorders which may also have been affecting the children with an ADHD diagnosis.
However, the experts warn, the study did have some important limitations -- the data did not reveal whether any of the young children were held back a year for educational reasons and potentially misclassified as the oldest in their year group when in fact they were the youngest of their original peers.
The flexibility in school starting date could explain why the rate of ADHD in December-born children (the relatively youngest) were slightly lower than those for children born in October and November.
And while the records of publicly-funded specialised services which are free at the point of access will capture most children who have received a diagnosis of ADHD, it will miss those who were diagnosed in private practice.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/10/171009191508.htm
Self-esteem in kids: Lavish praise is not the answer, warmth is
September 28, 2017
Science Daily/University of Amsterdam
How do children construct views of themselves and their place in the world? Children's social relationships turn out to be critical. For example, children develop higher self-esteem when their parents treat them warmly. But they develop lower self-esteem when their parents lavish them with inflated praise.
Who am I and what is my place in the world? Children are born without an answer to these pressing questions. As they grow up, though, they start to formulate answers seemingly effortlessly. Within a few years, they recognise themselves in the mirror, refer to themselves by their own name, evaluate themselves through the eyes of others and understand their standing in a social group.
Research by Christina Starmans from the University of Toronto shows that even toddlers have an idea of what it means to have a 'self'. Young children see the self as something that is unique to a person, separate from the body, stable over time, and located within the head, behind the eyes. Research by Andrei Cimpian (New York University) and his colleagues shows that even toddlers have the cognitive ability to form self-worth (i.e., how satisfied they are with themselves as individuals).
Social relationships
Over time, pronounced individual differences arise in children's self-concept. Some children like themselves, whereas others feel negatively about themselves. Some children see themselves as superior and deserving special treatment, whereas others consider themselves to be on an equal plane with others. Some children believe they can grow and build their abilities, whereas others believe their abilities are fixed and unchangeable. Where do these individual differences come from? What leads children to see themselves the way they do? 'Surprisingly little is known about the origins of children's self-concept', says Brummelman. 'It is important that we shed more light on this important subject. With this collection of articles, our aim is to showcase emerging research on this subject.'
'What these articles reveal is that children form their self-concept, at least in part, based on their social relationships', Brummelman continues. For example, research by Michelle Harris (University of California) and her team shows that children develop higher self-esteem when they receive warmth from their parents. Warm parents show an interest in their children's activities and share joy with them, which makes children feel noticed and valued. Brummelman's own research shows that children may develop lower self-esteem and sometimes even narcissism when their parents give them lots of extremely positive, inflated praise, such as 'Wow, you did incredibly well! Such inflated praise may give children a sense of grandiosity but at the same time also make them worry about falling short of the standards set for them.
Encouragement
Previous research has shown the importance of having a growth mindset - the belief that you can develop your skills through effort and education. Children with a growth mindset are eager to take on challenges, persist when the going gets tough, and see failure as opportunities for growth. In a theoretical article, Kyla Haimovitz and Carol Dweck (Stanford University) describe how parents can foster a growth mindset by praising children for effort instead of ability (for example, 'You worked so hard!') and by teaching children that failure isn't harmful but actually benefits learning and growth. Parents can encourage children to ask themselves: why did I get such a low grade, and what can I do differently in future?
All 10 articles in the special section study various dimensions of children's self-concept, including self-esteem, self-compassion, mindsets and self-perceived ability. 'What these articles show is that children construct their self-concept based on the social relationships they have, the feedback they receive, the social comparisons they make, and the cultural values they endorse. This underlines the deeply social nature of children's self-concept', says Brummelman.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/09/170928085101.htm
Answer to young people's persistent sleep problems
September 28, 2017
Science Daily/James Cook University
A collaborative research project indicates high rates of sleep problems continuing through teenage years and into early adulthood -- but also suggests a natural remedy.
Dr. Yaqoot Fatima from JCU's Mount Isa Centre for Rural and Remote Health was associated with a study that tracked more than 3600 people from the age of 14 until they were 21.
"Just over a quarter of the 14-year-olds reported sleep problems, with more than 40 percent of those still having sleep problems at 21," said Dr. Fatima.
She said the causes of sleep problems were different at different ages.
"Maternal factors, such as drug abuse, smoking, depression and anxiety among mothers are the most significant predictors of adolescent sleep problems in their children, at 14-years-old. For all people studied, being female, having experienced early puberty, and being a smoker were the most significant predictors of sleep problems at 21 years."
She said adolescent depression or anxiety were linking factors for sleep problems between the two ages.
"It's a vicious circle. Depression and anxiety are well-established risk factors for sleep problems and people with sleep problems are often anxious or depressed," she said.
Dr. Fatima said that as well as the traditional factors, excessive use of electronic media is emerging as another significant risk.
"In children and adolescents, it's found to be strongly associated with later bedtime and shorter sleep duration, increasing the risk of developing sleep disturbances," she said.
Dr. Fatima said the study was worrying as it revealed a high incidence of persistent sleep problems and possible concurrent health problems among young people -- but it also strongly suggested an answer to the problem.
"Even allowing for Body Mass Index and other lifestyle factors, we found that an active lifestyle can decrease future incidence and progression of sleep problems in young subjects. So, early exercise intervention with adolescents might provide a good opportunity to prevent their sleep problems persisting into later life."
She said the next study being considered would look at what factors lead to young adults' sleep problems continuing as they grow older and how that might be prevented.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/09/170928094158.htm
ADHD kids can be still, if they're not straining their brains
ADHD symptoms manifest watching videos requiring executive brain function
September 18, 2017
Science Daily/University of Central Florida
Lack of motivation or boredom with school isn't to blame for squirming by children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. Symptoms such as fidgeting, foot-tapping and chair-swiveling are triggered by cognitively demanding tasks - like school and homework. But movies and video games don't typically require brain strain, so the excessive movement doesn't manifest.
How's this for exasperating: Your ADHD child fidgets and squirms his way through school and homework, but seems laser-focused and motionless sitting in front of the TV watching an action thriller.
Well, fret not, because new research shows lack of motivation or boredom with school isn't to blame for the differing behavior. It turns out that symptoms of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder such as fidgeting, foot-tapping and chair-swiveling are triggered by cognitively demanding tasks -- like school and homework. But movies and video games don't typically require brain strain, so the excessive movement doesn't manifest.
"When a parent or a teacher sees a child who can sit perfectly still in one condition and yet over here they're all over the place, the first thing they say is, 'Well, they could sit still if they wanted to,'" said Mark Rapport, director of the Children's Learning Clinic at the University of Central Florida. "But kids with ADHD only need to move when they are accessing their brain's executive functions. That movement helps them maintain alertness."
Scientists once thought that ADHD symptoms were always present. But previous research from Rapport, who has been studying ADHD for more than 36 years, has shown the fidgeting was most often present when children were using their brains' executive functions, particularly "working memory." That's the system we use for temporarily storing and managing information required to carry out complex cognitive tasks such as learning, reasoning and comprehension.
As recently published in the Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, Professor Rapport's senior doctoral student Sarah Orban and research team tested 62 boys ages 8 to 12. Of those, 32 had ADHD. Thirty did not have ADHD and acted as a control group.
During separate sessions, the children watched two short videos, each about 10 minutes long. One was a scene from "Star Wars Episode I -- The Phantom Menace" in which a young Anakin Skywalker competes in a dramatic pod-race. The other was an instructional video featuring an instructor verbally and visually presenting multistep solutions to addition, subtraction and multiplication problems.
While watching, the participants were observed by a researcher, recorded and outfitted with wearable actigraphs that tracked their slightest movements. The children with ADHD were largely motionless while watching the Start Wars clip, but during the math video they swiveled in their chairs, frequently changed positions and tapped their feet.
That may not seem surprising. After all, weren't the children absorbed by the sci-fi movie and bored by the math lesson? Not so, Rapport said.
"That's just using the outcome to explain the cause," he said. "We have shown that what's really going on is that it depends on the cognitive demands of the task. With the action movie, there's no thinking involved -- you're just viewing it, using your senses. You don't have to hold anything in your brain and analyze it. With the math video, they are using their working memory, and in that condition movement helps them to be more focused."
The takeaway: Parents and teachers of children with ADHD should avoid labeling them as unmotivated slackers when they're working on tasks that require working memory and cognitive processing, researchers said.
The study builds on Rapport's earlier research, including a 2015 study that found that children with ADHD must be allowed to squirm to learn.
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=167se17RNHw
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/09/170918222249.htm
High blood pressure reasons differ by gender in teens; young adults
September 17, 2017
Science Daily/American Heart Association
Gender matters when it comes to what's most likely to elevate blood pressure in young to middle-aged adults. The volume of blood pumped from the left ventricle during heartbeats, i.e., stroke volume, is the main determinant of blood pressure levels in women, while blood pressure in men is more likely to be determined by the amount of resistance in the body's blood vessels.
There are marked gender differences in what drives blood pressure in middle-age in adulthood, suggesting the need for gender-specific treatments for high blood pressure, according to research presented today at the American Heart Association (AHA) Council on Hypertension, AHA Council on Kidney in Cardiovascular Disease, American Society of Hypertension Joint Scientific Sessions 2017, in San Francisco.
Background
"Blood pressure is determined mainly by three factors: heart rate; stroke volume, which is the volume of blood pumped by the heart; and the resistance to blood flow through the vessels, called total peripheral resistance. An increase in any one of the three factors can lead to an increase in blood pressure," said study author Catriona Syme, Ph.D., postdoctoral fellow at The Hospital for Sick Children (SickKids) in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. "The key takeaway from this study is that, for young and middle-aged women, stroke volume was the main determinant of blood pressure, while, in men, vascular resistance was the main determinant of blood pressure."
Syme and colleagues studied 1,347 Canadians from the Saguenay Youth Study, including 911 adolescents and 426 adults ages 36 to 65 years. The researchers used a device that measures beat-by-beat blood pressure and the underlying forces of heart rate, stroke volume and total peripheral resistance. In the approximately hour-long protocol, they measured these variables at rest, and during posture changes and a mental stressor -- all designed to mimic daily life activities, according to Syme.
Researchers found:
In females, stroke volume explains 55 percent of the variance in systolic blood pressure (the top number in a blood pressure reading), versus only 35 percent in males.
In males, the major determinant of systolic blood pressure was total peripheral resistance, which explained 47 percent of the variance, versus only 30 percent in females.
These gender differences were seen across most of the 52-minute protocol, being most prominent during standing and least evident during mental stress, according to the abstract.
This study is novel in that it looks at the relative contributions of the three parameters determining blood pressure, which have not been evaluated in a large population-based study, and it assesses these factors over time, in a way that mimics daily life activities. The study also looks at high blood pressure culprits in adolescents and young to middle aged adults, who are not frequently studied despite being affected by hypertension, according to Syme.
"For example, there have been many studies looking at sex differences in the usefulness of blood pressure medications. But, most of those studies have been done in people whose average age was 60-70 years -- many of the women being post-menopausal," Syme said. "We think pre-menopausal women and men of a similar age may have elevated blood pressure for different reasons, and thus may need to be treated for hypertension differently. After menopause, when the production of female sex hormones decreases, reasons for hypertension may be more similar in men and women."
While current treatment recommendations for hypertension do not differ by gender across all ages, this study suggests potential benefits to prescribing blood pressure-lowering medications with consideration for gender differences in the underlying physiology of elevated blood pressure in young and middle-aged adults.
This study was conducted in Caucasians. Future studies should investigate whether the relative contributions of these parameters differ by race.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/09/170917151002.htm