Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Half of teens shy, but for a few it's more serious

National Institutes of HealthImage via WikipediaOctober 17, 2011

(AP)  WASHINGTON — Does your teen show normal nerves about the weekend party, or always stay home?

Nearly half of teenagers say they're shy, perhaps a bit surprising in our say-anything society. But a government study finds a small fraction of those teens show signs of a troubling anxiety disorder that can be mistaken for extreme shyness.

The report challenges criticism that the terms "social phobia" or "social anxiety disorder" medicalize normal shyness.

"Shyness is a normal human temperament," says lead researcher Dr. Kathleen Merikangas of the National Institute of Mental Health, whose teachers always noted her own childhood shyness on her report cards.

But just as it can be hard to tell when feeling sad turns into depression, "there is a blurred boundary between people who describe themselves as shy and clinically significant impairment," Merikangas adds.

The difference: The shy can be drawn out and adapt, while teens or adults with full-fledged social anxiety become so paralyzed during social situations that it interferes with everyday functioning.

"I didn't go out on dates or do any of the things that other kids did," recalls Cynthia Kipp of Tehachapi, Calif., who shared her story of years struggling with social phobia with the Anxiety Disorders Association of America. Now 48, she thinks her first anxiety symptoms began in fourth grade, when she can remember hiding under her coat in class, but worsened in high school when she tried drugs and alcohol for relief. Eventually she found treatment that worked.

The report also opens a window into the broader field of temperament research. Even garden-variety shyness worries parents, particularly fathers of boys, says Dr. Nancy Snidman of Children's Hospital Boston.

In school-age boys especially, "shyness isn't very well tolerated in the United States," says Snidman who wasn't involved with the new research.

Snidman and colleagues at Harvard Medical School have tracked infants to their college years, and know that babies who react very negatively to new people and objects tend to grow into shy children. That's not a bad thing — caution is considered an important evolutionary adaptation.

Usually, the clinging tot does just fine as he or she grows older and finds a niche, Snidman says. Girls may think the shy teen boy is nice because he's not macho, for example, or the shy kids wind up on the school newspaper so they can write instead of do public speaking. Many outgrow their shyness.

Yet a very shy child is considered more at risk than others of later developing some type of anxiety disorder — just as the opposite extreme, a very outgoing child, can be at greater risk for attention or conduct disorders, she says.

The new study, published by the journal Pediatrics, is based on in-person surveys of more than 10,000 U.S. teens about a variety of mental health issues. More than 6,000 of their parents were surveyed, too.

About 47 percent of the teens identified themselves as shy around peers they don't know well. More than 62 percent of parents thought their teens were shy, perhaps a reflection of parental worry.

Then Merikangas' team analyzed how many teens appeared to meet the American Psychiatric Association's criteria for social anxiety disorder or social phobia. Roughly 1 in 10 of the self-described shy kids did.

Social phobia tends to appear during adolescence when kids take their first real steps toward independence, but there's little information about how often. The National Institutes of Health estimates it affects about 15 million adults.

The surveyed teens weren't formally diagnosed; Boston's Snidman cautions that what a specialist observes can be quite different from what a teen recalls.

Still, those identified as potentially socially phobic were more likely to have another mental health problem, such as depression or substance abuse. But they were no more likely than the other teens to be taking psychiatric medications.

There are anxiety-treating medications but the main treatment is behavioral therapy, exposing people very gradually to fear-inducing situations and teaching them coping techniques

What's a worried parent to watch for? This isn't standard stage fright, where you get sweaty palms before a speech but each one you do becomes easier. People with social anxiety disorder experience a more out-of-proportion fear that can make them shake, their hearts pound, or even cause a panic attack during a range of social situations. They start avoiding those scenarios.

The question is whether an anxious or shy teen is doing things typical of that age — participating in class, getting together with friends, going to group activities, says Dr. Chris Mauro, a Duke University psychologist. Try to get them into a group, whether it's sports or music or Scouts, because belonging is protective, he says.

The NIH's Merikangas recommends keeping an eye on social media, too. Sure it encourages electronic communication, but it may further isolate those already on that path, she says.

Teachers may notice a problem first, and shouldn't single out kids who won't participate in class but encourage them through group activities, she advises.

___

EDITOR'S NOTE — Lauran Neergaard covers health and medical issues for The Associated Press.

Online:

NIH info: http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/social-phobia-social-anxiety-disorder/index.shtml

Anxiety Disorders Association of America: http://www.adaa.org



Taken from CBSNews.com: HealthWatch; source article is below:
Half of teens shy, but for a few it's more serious

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Rare Condition Drives Girl to Eat Light Bulb

Transparentised version of Image:Gluehlampe 01...Image via Wikipedia(TERRA HAUTE, Ind.) -- Natalie Hayhurst looks like your average adorable 3-year-old. She plays with makeup, loves Justin Bieber, and loves playing with her big brother on their farm outside Terre Haute, Ind.  But when it comes to food, she's anything but average. Most kids her age are a little picky. Natalie likes everything -- literally. 

"Well, I first noticed it was a problem...[when] she had actually eaten my vinyl blinds that hang out to cover your sliding door. She took two bites out of them," said Natalie's mother, Colleen Hayhurst. 

Natalie suffers from a rare condition called Pica that creates a compulsion to eat things that aren't food. 

"She prefers the wood, paper products, cardboard, sticks," said Colleen. "She'll eat rocks, dirt; she's had a bite out of a Diet Coke can; she's eaten the little magnet out of the shower curtain, plastic bottles, toys." 

"You can't take your eye off of her, 'cause if you do she knows it, and she'll try to eat something when she knows you're not looking," said Colleen. 

In February Natalie was rushed to the emergency room after eating a light bulb. 

"She had moved her entertainment center and pulled the light bulb out of the night light while I was doing dishes," Colleen said. "She was in bed; I assumed she was asleep. She had eaten all the glass. I was pretty much hysterical." 

Doctors performed surgery to help remove the glass. 

When Colleen took Natalie to the pediatrician for a checkup and explained what was going on, the doctor, Dr. Lily Dela Cruz, knew this was something that went beyond typical toddler behavior. She referred them to a developmental behavioral specialist. 

Although Pica is more common in young children -- more than 10 percent of kids aged 1 to 6 are believed to have some form of the disorder -- adults are not immune. 

Pica is the Latin word for magpie, a bird that will eat anything. Doctors say these unusual cravings can be triggered by a lack of certain nutrients like iron or zinc. Some with Pica crave the texture of some materials in their mouths. 

In the case of Natalie, who has a healthy appetite for regular food, Pica is thought to be psychological. Pica is a symptom of autism, but Natalie has not been tested for the condition. She does suffer from insomnia and ADHD. As she gets older, she understands more what she is doing is wrong, but she can't seem to help herself. 

In addition to working with a therapist to curb her cravings, at home Colleen sprays Natalie's tongue with a sour spray that helps satisfy her constant need to put things in her mouth. Natalie also chews on biting sticks. And she has what her family calls her Pica Box full of textured toys that stimulate her senses. 

Colleen is reaching out to help other mothers and their children in this predicament. 

"There are nights I have cried myself to sleep, because you feel helpless," Colleen said. "My kids are my world...and I care about helping other people who are in the same boat as me."

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio



Taken from WTMA.com; source article is below:
Rare Condition Drives Girl to Eat Light Bulb

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Study: More Kids Suffer Firearm Injuries than Previously Believed

A third-generation 9mm Glock 17 on a computer ...Image via Wikipedia(BOSTON) -- Each year, more than 20,000 children go to U.S. emergency rooms with gun injuries, a new study estimates. That number is 30 percent higher than what researchers had previously found. 

Researchers at Children's Hospital Boston analyzed reports from the National Hospital Ambulatory Medical Care Survey of U.S. emergency department visits from 1999 to 2007. In those eight years, they counted nearly 186,000 children, from newborns to 19-year-olds, who had been treated for firearm injuries. About 8,300 of those injuries proved fatal. 

The study found that non-Caucasian boys age 12 and older were most likely to be injured by a gun. Forty-seven percent of the injuries they counted were in the South, but the Midwestern states had the highest proportion of firearm injuries relative to the population size. 

Dr. Saranya Srinivasan, one of the study's authors, said the pediatric emergency physicians have kept track of the numbers of children injured by guns for many years, but the higher numbers her study found were surprising. 

"Perhaps the scope of this problem is much larger than what we had originally thought," she said. 

The study, which Srinivasan and her colleagues were to present Monday at the American Academy of Pediatrics' annual conference, found that 63 percent of the firearm injuries were intentional -- from homicides, suicide attempts, or encounters with law enforcement. The remaining 37 percent were unintentional injuries that could have resulted from accidents in homes or on hunting trips. 

"If one-third of these injuries are unintentional, that means they're possibly preventable through things like more careful firearm storage and better education about gun safety," said Dr. Lois Lee, one of the study's authors. 

The study indicated that more children have been injured not just from gun accidents but also from violence involving firearms.

The American Academy of Pediatrics says the best way for parents to keep their children from being injured by guns is to keep them out of homes. But for parents who do have guns in the house, the AAP says they should be kept unloaded and locked away, bullets should be locked and stored separately from the guns, and the keys to gun lock boxes should be hidden from children.

Copyright 2011 ABC News Radio



Taken from WTMA.com; source article is below:
Study: More Kids Suffer Firearm Injuries than Previously Believed

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Heart disease boosts maternal death 100-fold

This is a sobering truth - the start of one life is the threat to another...
-----

Posted: 31 August 2011

A doctor examining a pregnant woman patient. (AFP Photo)
PARIS: Pregnant women with heart disease face a 100-fold increased risk of death, with the danger for offspring multiplied by 10, according to figures released on Tuesday at a medical congress in Paris.

Analysing data on 1,300 women gathered since 2008 from 28 countries across Europe, researchers reported 13 maternal deaths - one percent of the cohort - among expectant women with pre-existing heart conditions.

In healthy women, the average rate of maternal mortality in Europe is about one in 10,000. 

Of the 1,300 women, 869 had congenital heart disease, 333 were vascular heart patients, 79 had cardiomyopathy and 24 suffered from ischaemic heart disease.

Cardiomyopathy causes the heart muscle to become thicker and more rigid than normal, while ischaemic heart disease is characterised by reduced blood supply to the heart.

There were 59 cases of foetal deaths, or 4.5 percent of the total, about 10 times the normal rate of mortality for European nations.

Data on the relationship between heart disease and maternal mortality is scarce, and randomised clinical trials are not possible, noted Jolien Roos-Hesselink, chairman of a European Society of Cardiology (ESC) data registry set up in 2006.

"The only way to improve our knowledge of the factors which determine outcome in pregnant women with heart disease is to gather data on a large number of pregnancies and try to find patterns of outcome which correlate with management strategies," he said in a statement.

Roos-Hesselink said the figures, reported at the ESC's annual congress, which ends on Wednesday, was an interim analysis, and that more data was needed for a better understanding of which types of heart disease pose the highest risk and what treatment may be most effective.

- AFP/de



Taken from ChannelNewsAsia.com; source article is below:
Heart disease boosts maternal death 100-fold

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Sunday, October 16, 2011

HK study finds molecule that offers fertility hope

Intracytoplasmic sperm injection can be used t...
Intracytoplasmic sperm injection can be used to provide fertility for men with cystic fibrosis (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
Posted: 26 August 2011

Fertility hope
HONG KONG: Hong Kong scientists said on Friday they have discovered a molecule that binds human sperm to an egg, in a breakthrough which offers new hope for infertile couples.

The study by researchers at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) found a key molecule on the coating of the human egg, called sialyl-LewisX (SLeX), which acts as a binding agent to help the sperm and egg stick together.

"This research provides an enlightening answer to a basic important question and human fertilisation -- how does a sperm bind to an egg?" William Yeung, one of the researchers, told AFP.

"But this is only a first step that will lead to more discoveries," said Yeung, who is also a professor at HKU's department of obstetrics and gynaecology.

The identification of SLeX will help to pinpoint patients whose infertility results from a lack of the substance.

Armed with this information, they will then be able to choose a fertility treatment known as intracytoplasmic sperm injection, which directly injects a single sperm into the egg, said the researcher.

The study, which began in 2009, found SLeX on 70 percent of all the 195 unfertilised eggs tested. The eggs were donated by patients.

Researchers expect the discovery to be put into clinical use in two years.

The study was conducted jointly with research groups from Imperial College in Britain, Academia Sinica in Taiwan and University of Missouri in the United States.

The study said that infertility affects about 15 per cent of couples of reproductive age, citing figures from the World Health Organization.

- AFP/ck


How to read a man?

Taken from ChannelNewsAsia.com; source article is below:
HK study finds molecule that offers fertility hope