4 Troubled Teens Blog

About half the children who have mental problems are not getting treatment for them, according to a new study from the National Institute of Mental Health. The most common untreated problem is anxiety.

• Dr. Kathleen Merikangas and her colleagues used data from 3,042 children ages 8 to 15 years old, whose families participated in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey.
  
• Caretakers, parents and children provided information about the children's mental health.
• Dr. Merikangas identified six mental problems: anxiety, panic disorder, eating disorders, depression, Attention Deficit Disorder/Hyperactivity (ADHD), and conduct disorder.
  
• Among those who had such mental problems, about 55 percent had consulted a mental health professional.
  

ADHD was the most common problem, with over 8 percent of the children having that diagnosis. Children from lower socioeconomic backgrounds were more likely to have ADHD, while children from upper income backgrounds were more likely to have anxiety. Only 32 percent of children with anxiety disorder had gotten treatment.

"The earlier you can intervene, the less likely you are to see the consequences of these conditions, such as children developing substance abuse, suicide, dropping out of school, and not being able to function in their social roles," said Dr. Merikangas.

The study appeared in the journal Pediatrics.

More teenagers are smoking marijuana even as they are cutting down on smoking cigarettes, binge drinking, and using methamphetamine, according to a new study from the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Because of the national debate on whether to legalize marijuana for medical uses, more teenagers believe it is safe. Many of today's teenagers also believe that prescription drugs, Ecstasy and LSD are safe to use, which means more teens will experiment with these in the future.

• Only 44.8 percent of today's eighth-graders believe that smoking marijuana poses "a great risk" compared to 48 percent last year.
• Over 20 percent of high school seniors said they had smoked marijuana in the past month.

"When the perception of the danger goes down, in the following years you will see an increasing use," said Nora Volkow, director of the NIDA. She noted that prescription drugs like OxyContin and Vicodin are very addictive and can act as gateways to heroin, which is cheaper.

The survey found that the use of prescription narcotics rose among this year's 10th graders:

• 8 percent said they had used Vicodin in the past 12 months, compared to 6.7 percent last year.
  
• For OxyContin, those figures were 3.6 last year and 5.1 percent this year.
  
• About 44 percent said they had taken at least one alcoholic drink in the past month, which shows little change from last year.
  
• Recreational use of Ritalin, a drug prescribed for Attention Deficit Disorder, is slightly down.

This studywas performed by researchers from the University of Michigan, who collected data on 47,097 students.

The recent death of a 12-year-old Indiana boy prompted CBS Channel 2 (Chicago) reporter Suzanne Le Mignot to interview Stephanie Weber, the Executive Director of Suicide Prevention Services:

Weber said it's not unusual for a child that's 12 years old to take their own life.

"It is the second leading killer in the age group 12 to 24, which amazes a lot of people," she said.

Weber said there are a variety of things that are going on in a young person's life during that time.

"Developmentally and emotionally, there's a lot going on," she said. "Socially, there's a lot going on, but there's also a lot of pressure at school, there's pressure at home, bullying is on the increase. There's just so many factors that play into this."

Weber said that, at a young age, children can be very good actors. There are warning signs parents can look for in their children.

"Any sudden change in personality, withdrawing. Kids who want to sleep more. They're eating less. There's that whole affect about them that shows that they're sad. They're just pulling away," Weber said.

A major study of 8,500 Irish children found that 40 percent have been bullied in the past year, and most of their parents do not know about it.

The nine-year-old children are part of a new study called Growing Up in Ireland. The study found that while most Irish children like school live with both parents and are healthy, almost one in four is overweight. The authors of the study are advising parents to be more concerned about weight issues and bullying.

A new study from Northwestern University found that some people who take antidepressants undergo profound personality changes. Researchers found that many patients grew more extroverted and less neurotic when they underwent such a drug regime.

The study found that those patients who experienced a shift in personality were those less likely to relapse back into depression.

• The study, which was led by Dr. Tony Tang, involved 240 adults with moderate to severe depression.
  
• Half of the study subjects took the drug Paxil for four months, while 60 received therapy without medication, and another 60 were given a sugar pill and no therapy whatsoever.
  
• Those who took the sugar pills showed early improvements that were sometimes almost as great as those who took the real drugs, but they showed no personality changes.
  
• Some who took Paxil underwent sudden personality changes.
  
• Their scores measuring neuroticism improved as quickly as most adults do over a lifetime, and they did it in two months.

Americans spent $9.6 billion last year on selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors or SSRIs, which increase levels of a brain chemical linked to feeling content.

The study appeared in the journal Archives of General Psychiatry.

Today's high school and college students are reporting more symptoms of depression and other types of mental illness more often than young people did in previous generations.

• A study of more 63,000 students begun in 1938 finds that students are more isolated, misunderstood, and emotionally unstable than students in the 1930s and 40s.
• They are more narcissistic, have lower self control, and express more feelings of worry, sadness, and dissatisfaction with life.
• Eighty-five percent of today's college students scored below average in mental health measures such as the Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory.

Some experts say the changes in scores are due to increasing American materialism.

"When you talk about generational change, as this study does, it's really about changes in culture," Dr. Jean Twenge, associate professor of psychology at San Diego State University, said in a Dec. 10 article by Courtney Hutchison of ABC News. "These results suggest that as American culture has increasingly valued external and self-centered goals such as money and status while increasingly devaluing community, affiliation, and finding meaning in life, the mental health of American youth has suffered."

If parents are under too much stress, they become role models for putting work and success first and relationships second, said Dr. Bruce Rabin, director of the Healthful Lifestyle Program at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

"Children learn from those they love," Rabin told ABC News. "If their role models are short tempered or tell children to leave them alone because they are under a lot of stress, that will have an effect on the child's mental health development."

The parents of an 18-year-old girl who committed suicide are suing her boyfriend and her former high school for negligence.

Cynthia and Albert Logan allege that their daughter Jessica suffered severe emotional distress after her boyfriend, Ryan Salyers, circulated nude pictures of Jessica to a large number of students at Sycamore High School and Loveland High School in Ohio.

In July 2008, after attending the funeral of a friend who had committed suicide, Jessica returned home and hanged herself.

The Logans are asking for damages from Salyers, Sycamore High school, their city, the school district, and some of Salyers' friends.

She was vivacious. She was fun. She was artistic. She was compassionate. She was a good kid, Cynthia Logan said in a March 6 MSNBC article. She claims that after the pictures circulated, her daughter was constantly attacked, ridiculed, and tortured at school and began to skip classes. Jessica apparently sought help from a school counselor, but the teasing continued.

Sending nude and semi-nude pictures to classmates is fairly common among today's teenagers. According to a recent survey by the National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy, almost 40 percent of teens have sent or posted sexually suggestive materials, and 48 percent report receiving them.

Heralded as one of the great television series of all time, "The Wire" is often lauded for its realistic portrayal of the bleak futures and agonizing life choices facing many young people in poverty-stricken and crime-ridden areas of Baltimore, Maryland.

But one of the stars of "The Wire," Sonja Sohn, is using the show as a way to teach at-risk teens how to avoid the outcomes portrayed on the show. Derek Valcourt of Baltimores WJZ-13 described Sohns efforts in an Oct. 22 article:

Sohn started reWIRED for Change, a program that uses episodes of "The Wire" to coach kids fresh out of the juvenile justice system how to make smarter life decisions.

"If you've been on 'The Wire' you have street cred and so that street cred is currency. So why not use that currency for the betterment of other folks," said Sohn.

"She taught us how to think before we react to something. I stopped hanging with the people I used to hang with. So it's helped me a lot," said [18-year-old Latavia] Cornish. "I know my dream. I know I'm going to be successful. That's why I'm staying out of trouble. I'm on the right path now, so all I got to do is make sure I stay that way."

Sonja Sohn is already working with a second group of troubled teens.

A church-sponsored resale shop in Princeton, Illinois, recently opened with the goal of supporting troubled teens in the area. A Dec. 2 article by Lyle Ganther of bcrnews.com provided the following details about the innovative retail effort:

Destiny Resale, which opened Oct. 31 at 79 S. Sixth St., is operated by Victory Worship Center on East Peru Street.

"Everything is donated here," said Shannon Robbins, the churchs youth and music pastor. "We accept everything except clothes. We have furniture, dishware, holiday items, toys, games, appliances and electronics like computers." ...

"All of our proceeds minus the bills will go to build Destiny Center," he explained. ...

Destiny Center, which is still in its infancy stage, will be designed to provide troubled teens a place to stay with beds and showers.

The prevalence of suicide thoughts and attempts among teenagers remain distressingly high. Many suicide attempts are related to teen depression -- but there are steps parents can take to support their teens, and help them manage situations that can trigger depression.

The Mayo Clinic advises parents to take the following five steps to lessen the likelihood that their children will suffer from depression -- and to increase the odds of identifying and treating the disorder should it occur:

1. Praise your child's skills.
2. Encourage your child to participate in organized activities.
3. Encourage your child to stay physically active.
4. Provide emotional support and guidance to your child.
5. Talk to your child.

Studies have also found that children who struggle academically at a young age develop symptoms of depression early. Getting involved in your childrens education from the beginning, offering support and praise for areas in which they do well, can help reduce or eliminate depressive symptoms.

A new study from Australia finds that teenagers believe there are differences between being popular and being well-liked.

• Dr. Stephanie Hawke interviewed 200 teenagers, asking them what it means to be popular and how popular kids act.
• The teens told Dr. Hawke that popular teens were likely to be bullies who engage in risk-taking behaviors, such as sex and teen drug use.
• On the other hand, well-liked teenagers were described as people who were true to themselves.
• Being popular was related to what group you associated with, rather than how you were as a person.

The good news from the study was that as children in their late teens tended to find a balance between popularity and being well-liked.

By age 17 or so, Dr. Hawke said, teens develop their own sense of self rather than just going with the flow.

Budget cuts are threatening to close the Michigan Youth Challenge Academy, a National Guard-sponsored program for troubled teens.

According to a Nov. 25 article on the website of CBS affiliate News Channel 3 WMMT, current and former students are playing an important role in the effort to save the program:

More than 130 kids are sitting in limbo right now, waiting to hear if they'll get to attend the academy in January. [On Nov. 24] cadets and graduates hand-delivered letters to every legislator in the state with signatures from all those kids.

The academy will shut down the day after Christmas unless lawmakers restore funding. ...

Over the past 10 years the program has helped nearly 1,800 at-risk teens clean up their acts and get their lives on track.

Nine teenagers from the Rock Hill, South Carolina, area spent the last month learning how to box. The training camp kept them out of trouble, taught them discipline, and gave them an outlet for their frustrations. All nine want to continue in the program, but funding has become an issue.

"To continue training with the Rock Hill Boxing Club, the nine boys will need a one-year membership to USA Boxing, a national association for the sport," the Rock Hill Herald has reported. "And the fee to become a member will go up next year from $32 to $45. "

An after-school program in the area has agreed to pay the $45 fee in December for two students to continue to box, and will help provide equipment and related supplies. And a local Rock Hill man has agreed to sponsor five of the remaining seven students, but the last two teen still need sponsors, the Herald reported.

Reverend Seth Crosby, who mentors all nine of the young boxers, is asking the community to support the teenagers and help keep the program going.