4 Troubled Teens Blog

A study of college students and mental illness found that more students are coming to campus with pre-existing conditions such as bipolar disorder and depression. Although these are serious illnesses, the research indicates that better treatments may be enabling more of them to overcome their illnesses and succeed at college.

• Researchers from Hofstra University in New York studied the records of 3256 college students who used counseling services between 1997 and 2009.
• In 1998, 93% of the students had at least one mental disorder, but by 2009, that had increased to 96%.
• The number of students on psychiatric medicines increased by ten percentage points in the 12-year period.

"The percentage of students with moderate to severe depression has gone up from 34% to 41%," said Dr. John Guthman, lead author. "These outliers often require significantly more resources and may contribute greatly to the misperception that the average student is in distress."

One positive finding was that the number of students who thought about suicide declined by more than half.

The study was presented at the annual convention of the American Psychological Association.
 

Labels: bipolar, mental_health, depresion, college

Posted By: Jane St. Clair 0 Comments

A study of 800 young people ages ten to 24 years old found that those from low income backgrounds were twice as likely to say that they had sex by age 11 , and more likely to say they were involved in criminal activities by age 10.

Middle-class youth were 1.5 times more likely to say they had abused alcohol by age ten years.

No one is sure if low income participants in the study were more likely to get into risky behaviors in early ages or simply more likely to admit to doing them.

However, those children in the study who had gotten involved at very young ages with unprotected sex, delinquency, and alcohol were more likely to be involved in crime, alcohol abuse, and risky sex as young adults.

"Crime, alcohol use disorders, and risky sex are common among young adults, especially those from low income backgrounds. These problems are costly to address, and they decrease the health and well-being of young people, and usually began during young adolescence," according to lead author W. Alex Mason.

The study appears in the Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry.
 

Labels: sex, juvenile crime, alcohol_abuse

Posted By: CRC Health 0 Comments

On August 26, Ohio teenagers who had successfully turned their lives around had the chance to have their criminal records sealed at an event being held in Akron.

"When people have been rehabilitated, I think they’ve earned the reward of having their record sealed," said Summit County Juvenile Court Judge Linda Tucci Teodosio. [Source: WKYC-TV]

Violent and sexual crimes were excluded from this event, as those records cannot be sealed. Operation Fresh Start was modeled after a program for adults that invites people with arrest warrants to surrender peacefully.
 

Labels: criminals

Posted By: Stefanie Hamilton 1 Comment

Depressed people may actually have bipolar disorder even if they don't experience full-blown episodes of mania, according to a new study from the National Institute of Mental Health. The study found that depressed people who have short episodes of increased energy and activity and especially those with a family history of bipolar disorder are at risk for the disease themselves.

• The old thinking was that bipolar disease is characterized by depression followed by episodes of mania that last several weeks or months.
• During the "manic" phase of bipolar disease, the person may go without sleep, have increased levels of energy and activity, speeded-up thinking and euphoria.
• Then the person "crashes" into depression, often accompanied by suicidal thoughts.
• This new study indicates that depressed people who experience low levels of mania, even an episode lasts just a few hours or days, may actually have bipolar disease.
• Dr. Kathleen Merikangas, an investigator with the Intramural Research Program at the National Institute of Mental Health in Maryland, used information about mood disorders gathered from more than 5000 households in her study.
• Dr. Merikangas said that people who have up-and-down shifts in moods, even ones that are short, should be evaluated by mental health professionals.

"There is a continuous shading from pure depression to classic bipolar disorder," said Dr. Gregory Simon, a psychiatrist and chair of the scientific advisory board of the Depression and Bipolar Support Alliance. "This study gives stronger evidence for that continuous shading and demonstrates more clearly that milder symptoms of hypomania are truly related to bipolar disorder."

The study appears in the American Journal of Psychiatry.
 

Labels: depression, bipolar, mental_health

Posted By: Jane St. Clair 1 Comment

Teenagers who gamble are at higher risk for other kinds of addictions such as drug and alcohol dependencies, according to a new study from Purdue University. The research team also found that teen gamblers are more likely to engage in risky sex and less likely to get help than adult gamblers.

• Dr. Lynn Blinn-Pike and her colleagues went through 137 previous studies of adolescent gambling and found that it is an international problem.
• About 80 percent of all teenagers are involved in some kind of gambling, and 10 to 15 percent are at risk for developing gambling addictions.
• More than 5 percent of all 18-to-20-year-olds gamble online.

"There are a lot of sad stories out there," said Dr. Blinn-Pike," and I am trying to draw attention to this issue."

The study appears in the Journal of Adolescent Health.

Labels: risky_behaviors, gambling

Posted By: Troubled Teens 1 Comment

Depressed teenagers who attempt to self-medicate by using cigarettes to fight depression may actually be making their depression worse, according to a new study from the University of Toronto and the University of Montréal in Canada.

• Researchers interviewed 662 high school students from a variety of backgrounds,.
• The researchers divided the students into three groups -- those who never smoke, those who use cigarettes to enhance their mood or physical well-being, and those who do not use cigarettes that way.
• Then the researchers measured the students' levels of depression by asking questions such as "how often do you feel too tired to do things," "how often do you have trouble going to sleep," and so forth.

"Smokers who use cigarettes as mood enhancers have higher risks of elevated depressive symptoms than teenagers who never smoked," said Professor Jennifer O'Loughlin, a co-author of the study and a professor at the University of Montréal. "Our study found that adolescent smokers who reported emotional benefits from smoking are at higher risk of developing depression."

The study appears in the journal Addictive Behaviors.

Labels: depression, tobacco use, smoking

Posted By: Jane St. Clair 1 Comment

A study from the University of Cambridge in Great Britain found that teaching teenagers "mindfulness" improved their mental health. Mindfulness training is often incorporated into residential recovery programs for issues such as trauma and eating disorders.

• Professor Felicia Huppert and her colleagues studied 155 boys ages 14 to 15 years old, who took a one month class in mindfulness.
• Mindfulness is awareness of what is happening at any given moment, and experiencing everything without making judgments.
• The class consisted of four-40 minute classes, and the boys were asked to practice mindfulness at home.
• The research team tested the class participants, as well as a control group that did not take the course, before and after the program.

The boys who took the courses had increased feelings of well-being and more positive emotions such as contentment, being interested, and feeling affectionate. Boys who had high levels of anxiety and those who practiced the most often achieved the greatest benefits.

"We believe that these mindfulness training can enhance well-being in a number of ways," said Dr. Huppert. "If you practice being in the present, you can increase positive feelings by savoring pleasurable ongoing experiences. Additionally, calming the mind and observing experiences with curiosity and acceptance not only reduces stress but helps with attention, control, and emotional regulation -- skills which are valuable, both inside and outside the classroom."

She said that as a result of this study, state and private schools are initiating an eight-week curriculum in mindfulness training.
 

Labels: mental_health, mindfulness

Posted By: Aspen Education Group 1 Comment

Mentally ill people do not commit more crimes than anyone else. However, they are more likely to abuse drugs and alcohol, and substance abusers commit more violent crime, according to a new study from Europe.

• Dr. Seena Fazel analyzed records that went back thirty years of 8,000 people with schizophrenia and 3700 who have bipolar disorder.
• All participants lived in Sweden.
• The main finding of the study was "the relationship between violent crime and serious mental illness can be explained by alcohol and substance abuse. If you take away the substance abuse, the contribution of the illness itself is minimal."

People with mental illness who abuse substances have crime rates six to seven times higher than the general population. However, this rate is the same for all substance abusers.

"It's probably more dangerous walking outside a pub on a late night than walking outside a hospital where patients have been released," said Dr. Fazel, a lecturer and psychiatrist at the University of Oxford in Great Britain.

This study appears in the Archives of General Psychiatry.

Labels: violence, mental_health, drug_use, substance_abuse, alcohol_abuse

Posted By: Jane St. Clair 1 Comment

About 30% of the survivors of a school shooting experienced psychological disorders afterwards but only half of them got professional help, according to a new study from the University of Montréal.

Professor Alain Lesage found that the 1000 survivors of the Dawson College shootings in his study had twice the incidence of posttraumatic stress syndrome, depression, alcohol dependency, and social phobia compared to the general population.

The shooting occurred on September 13, 2006, when Kimveer Gill opened fire at Dawson College, killing one person and himself, and injuring 16 others.

Dr. Lesage concluded that crisis intervention may help survivors should a similar tragedy ever occur.

Labels: schools, ptsd, trauma

Posted By: Jane St. Clair 1 Comment

"Self-embedding" is a form of teen self-harm in which teens injure themselves by forcing objects such as paper clips, staples and glass under the skin and into soft tissue. Other more widely known types of teen self-harm include cutting, burning and hair-pulling.

Between 13% and 24% of teenagers have histories of cutting themselves or self-embedding.

• Hospital radiologists are often the first to spot self-embedding , because they have to x-ray and locate the objects.
• Dr. William Schiels recently completed a new study of 600 pediatric patients who were being treated for embedded objects in their bodies at Nationwide Children's Hospital. The vast majority had been in accidents.
• However, nine girls and two boys, all teenagers, had 76 objects in their arms, ankles, feet, and hands that they had forced below their skin.
• Dr. Schiels said that self-embedding is not a suicidal act, but it can lead to dangerous infections. Teenagers with such behaviors should be evaluated by mental health professionals.

The study appears in the journal Radiology.
 

Labels: self-harm, cutting, embedding

Posted By: Aspen Education Group 1 Comment

Recent studies have found that, unfortunately, teen depression is on the rise. Parents and other caregivers, in their attempts to help, sometimes inadvertently say things that are unhelpful or downright hurtful.

“What to say: You’re not alone in this. What NOT to say: There’s always someone worse off than you are. What to say: You are important to me. What NOT to say: No one ever said that life was fair. What to say: I can’t really understand what you are feeling, but I can offer my compassion. What NOT to say: Believe me, I know how you feel. I was depressed once…” [Source: Health.com]

People who struggle with depression don’t need to know that we understand as much as they need to know that we love them and will be there for them whether we understand or not. We need to remember that there are no simple solutions (or causes) for depression.

Labels: depression

Posted By: Stefanie Hamilton 1 Comment

Scientists have long believed that teenagers with acne are more likely to have suicidal thoughts because the drugs they take cause depression. Now a new study from the University of Oslo in Norway found that it might just be that acne itself can cause depression in teenagers, and not the medications for it.

• Dr. Jons Anders Halvorson conducted long interviews with 3775 people ages 18 to 19 years old.
• The boys who suffered from acne had three times the number of suicidal thoughts, and girls with acne had double the number of suicidal thoughts compared to their peers with clear complexion.
• Those who had severe acne conditions also had more social problems.

Though suicidal thoughts do not always lead to suicide attempts, tens who are having thoughts of suicide need to be assessed by qualified professionals to ensure that any mental health or emotional issues are identified and addressed.

The study appears in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology.
 

Posted By: CRC Health 1 Comment