Clinical News
Below are news articles about clinical matters related to child and youth mental health. For stories about systems, shortages, funding and other non-clinical issues, please go here.
Kids with ADHD have trouble forming emotional memories, study finds
Wednesday, May 29, 2013In the search for answers about the vexing hold that attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder has on modern childhood, the role of sleep crops up repeatedly. There is strong evidence that children with ADHD experience sleep problems. Some experts also suggest that sleep disorders are actually misdiagnosed as ADHD. But new German research suggests another link between sleep and ADHD, this time pointing to a key brain function that kids with ADHD appear to be missing out on even during a good nigh...
Full ArticleNeeded: New approaches to defuse 'suicide contagion' among teens
Thursday, May 23, 2013Experts on adolescent behaviour say the apparent susceptibility of Canadian teens to the idea of suicide shows the need to change public discussion about this sensitive topic. Among the suggestions being put forward are finding new ways to refer to the act, to put it in a more appropriate context and training crisis-intervention teams to be more aware of how young people can respond to a suicide in their midst. A study published May 21 in the Canadian Medical Association Journal reported that te...
Full ArticleSmartphone 'Addiction' May Affect Adolescent Development
Thursday, May 23, 2013SAN FRANCISCO — The greater the overuse of smartphones, the greater the risk for severe psychopathologies in adolescents, new research suggests. The study of nearly 200 adolescents in Korea showed that those who were very high users of smartphones had significantly more problematic behaviors, including somatic symptoms, attentional deficits, and aggression, than did those who were low users. In addition, the investigators note that the effects of smartphone overuse were similar to those of...
Full ArticleGrand River Hospital cuts child psychiatry outpatient service
Wednesday, May 22, 2013Grand River Hospital says it is cutting outpatient child and teen psychiatry outpatient hours due to the "unexpected departure" of four psychiatrists in recent months. The hospital will now only be providing outpatient psychiatric care to "very sick children," said Judy Shearer, the associate vice president for mental health and addiction at the hospital. There will be no changes to inpatient services, the young adult program and preschool diagnostic services, the hospital said Wednesday. The ho...
Full Article'Suicide contagion' spreads after schoolmate death
Tuesday, May 21, 2013Young people who have had a schoolmate die by suicide are more likely to consider it or attempt it, according to a large Canadian study into "suicide contagion." Suicide contagion refers to the ripple effect among pre-teens and teens who lose a schoolmate to suicide and then contemplate, attempt or die by suicide themselves. For the study published Tuesday in the Canadian Medical Association Journal, researchers analyzed the association using survey data on 22,064 children aged 12 to 17 from acr...
Full ArticleDSM-5: Controversial changes to psychiatry's bible
Friday, May 17, 2013Inattentive adults. Angry kids. Binge eaters. They’re all covered in the long-awaited fifth edition of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, better known as the bible of psychiatry, that has sparked controversy inside the profession. It took more than a decade and 1,500 experts from 39 countries to retool the tome that defines humankind’s mental ills. It will be published May 22. Critics claim the DSM-5 includes new disorders and milder versions of old ones ...
Full ArticleGroundbreaking mental health study to be repeated 30 years later
Wednesday, May 15, 2013A Hamilton study that became the gold standard globally for measuring children’s mental health is being updated and will once again be lead by Hamilton experts. The Ontario Child Health Study was co-authored by the late Dr. Dan Offord in 1983 and found that one in five children has some type of mental health problem. It was the first time that one in five figure had been determined with such comprehensive data. The study involved 3,294 children (ages 4 to 16) from 1,869 families across Ont...
Full ArticleMost Suicidal Youth Seen by MDs in Year Before Death
Sunday, May 12, 2013More than 80 percent of youth who die by suicide had some form of contact with the health care system in the year before their death, a new study finds. “This suggests there are a lot of opportunities for prevention,” said Anne Rhodes, Ph.D., a research scientist at St. Michael’s Hospital Suicide Studies Research Unit. “Most of these youth were seen by an outpatient physician or went to an emergency department where they could have potentially benefited from an interventi...
Full ArticleTeens with Social Anxiety Engage in Earlier Alcohol, Marijuana Use
Wednesday, May 8, 2013Among teens with substance use disorders, those who also have social anxietydisorder begin using marijuana at a mean age of 10.6 years — an average of 2.2 years earlier than teens without anxiety, according to a study conducted at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. “This finding surprised us,” said principal investigator Alexandra Wang, a third-year medical student at the university. “It shows we need to start earlier with prevention of drug and alcohol u...
Full ArticleOverprotective parenting among negative child rearing styles linked to bullying, study shows
Monday, April 29, 2013Children exposed to negative parenting, ranging from abuse to overprotective parenting, face an increased risk of being bullied or becoming bullies, new research is showing. A study out of the University of Warwick in Coventry, U.K., published in the journal Child Abuse & Neglect, found that “negative or harsh” parenting was linked to a moderate increase in the risk of, simultaneously, being both a bully and a victim of bullying and a small increase in the risk of being solely a...
Full ArticleNews, Jobs and Events
