4 Troubled Teens Blog

Parents who are concerned that their children may be prone to video game addiction may be interested in a new study from the University of Pittsburgh

Pitt researchers under the direction of Dr. Kirk Erickson found that people whose brains have certain larger-than-average structures are better at playing video games.

Dr. Erickson used magnetic resonance imaging to track brain activity in 39 people playing a video game called Space Fortress. Those who had enlarged caudate nucleus and nucleus accumbens in their brains were able to learn new skills easier and to score higher.

According to Missouri newspaper The News-Presse, data released by the state's Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) show an unexpected spike in teen pregnancies. Since the 1990s, the rate had been steadily decreasing.

"Teen birth rates in the St. Joseph area are among the highest in Missouri, statistics show," the paper reported. "For the local MSA, the percentages of births to mothers under 18 were the second highest in the state, at 3.61 percent. The highest MSA was held by Joplin, Mo., at 3.67 percent."

These percentages are only slightly off national statistics, which showed a 3 percent increase in teen pregnancies.

Postnatal depression, and its effects on infants, gets a lot of attention. But a new study has found that moms mood during pregnancy deserves some attention, too.

A Feb. 5 article on MSNBC.com provided the following details about the study, which was led by Dale F. Hay, a professor of psychology at Cardiff University in Wales:

• The researchers reviewed data on 120 British teens and their parents from inner-city areas. The youth were interviewed at 4, 11 and 16 years of age.
• About one-third of expecting moms were considered depressed during pregnancy, which is higher than the current worldwide estimate of about 18 percent of pregnant women
• Teens born to mothers who were depressed during pregnancy were four times more likely than others to show violent behaviors by age 16.
  
• While 8.5 percent of teens born to chipper expecting moms showed the antisocial behaviors, about 29 percent of those born to depressed moms showed the same.
  

Spending too much time on the Internet can make you depressed, according to a new study from the University of Leeds in Great Britain.

Researchers were unsure if Internet use causes depression, or if depressed people are more likely to spend too much time on computers.

People who spend excessive amounts of time online are more likely than than average users to be looking at sexual and gaming websites and interacting on online communities. If they substitute real life relationships for online conversations, there can be a "serious impact on their mental health," according to Dr. Catriona Morrison, the study's lead author.

An Australian study suggests that taking fish oil may help young people with schizophrenia avoid psychotic incidents.

• Dr. Paul Amminger of the University of Melbourne studied 76 people with schizophrenia
• Forty-one study subjects took fish oil tablets four times a day for three months, and the rest took sugar tablets.
  
• Among those who took fish oil, only two had psychotic incidents
  
• Among those who took sugar tablets, 11 had psychotic incidents.
  

Dr. Amminger said that previous studies have found that fatty acids such as fish oil can affect mental health, but it is too early to say whether fish oil should be prescribed for mental illness.

This study appears in the archives of General Psychiatry.

Juvenile offenders who work with mediators and make amends to their victims cut their chances of reoffending in half, according to a study of the juvenile system in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

• Donna Decker Morris of the University of New Haven found that juvenile cases that enter mediation are typically minor offenses, such as vandalism, disturbing the peace, and other misdemeanors.
  
• All parties have to agree to participate in the mediation process. Teenage offenders make amends by apologizing, performing community service, and so forth.
  
• They discuss what happened, why it happened, and how to prevent future incidences.
  
• The Morris study found that victims were more satisfied when they were part of the process.

Morris said that young people can feel like they are victims of society who are being unfairly treated, but mediation forces them to accept responsibility for what they have done.

"A lot of young people feel like the system is against them," she said, "so they see no need to change their behaviors."

According to a study published in the February issue of Pediatrics, teenagers are often the first to know when one of their friends is considering suicide. But they rarely turn to an adult for help.

"Thats one reason the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA) is running a program at this summer's American Library Association annual conference on how to address critical and sensitive issues among teens, such as depression," the School Library Journal reported.

Workshops will also address building collections and programming that open the door for young people and adults to learn about teen-related issues and address their concerns. The annual conference runs the week of June 24 in Washington, D.C.

Actor Dan Trejo, Jr. grew up believing his life would never amount to much because he was Latino. He was in and out of juvenile detention centers during his teen years, and while in prison he decided that enough was enough. He quit drinking and doing drugs, and began pursuing an acting career.

"Trejo, known for playing the tough guy in movies for about 25 years, told the 30 students at Decker Lake [rehabilitation center] there are two things they can do to immediately and drastically change their lives: Stop drinking alcohol and using drugs," the Salt Lake Tribune reported.

Trejo told the Tribune that some Latino youth have been taught to think like he did, that they cant accomplish anything outside of their barrios. He advised these teens need to "retrain your brain" and begin believing they can accomplish anything.

Reclusive author JD Salinger died recently at the age of 91. His most famous work, The Catcher in the Rye, has been read by generations of teenagers. Even today, teachers like Noah Klein require their students to read it.

Noah Klein assigned his Iroquois (Kent.) High School English class a paper exploring the themes of "The Catcher in the Rye," and said "One of the amazing things about this book is that the struggles of being an adolescent are universal." Klein says the book can be an eye-opener for troubled teens. [Source: The Courier-Journal]

Klein chose "The Cather in the Rye" because a lot of his teens are "doing things they shouldn't be doing," he told the newspaper, and he hopes Holden Caulfield will give them a different perspective.

The authors of new book about teenagers who were able to overcome severe psychiatric problems have found that such teens share certain traits, such as resilience and optimism, that help them overcome their difficulties.

• Stuart Hauser, Joseph Allan and Eve Golden studied 67 people who had been patients as adolescents in locked wards of residential psychiatric hospitals.
  
• Twelve years later, only nine had recovered and gone on to become "successful, optimistic and trusting adults."
  
• The authors wanted to look beyond factors such as education and social economic status, and focus on the personality traits that helped the teenagers get through their adolescent crisis.
  
• They conducted extensive interviews with all 67 former patients.

The ones who recovered were better able to tell their life stories in a complicated and nuanced way. They could organize and integrate material that was extremely difficult into cogent narratives, and they were more resilient and more likely to learn from their mistakes.

The ones who remained stuck in their problems told stories that were simple and flat, and demonstrated less emotional awareness than those who recovered.

The new book is entitled Out Of the Woods: Tales of Resilient Teens.

A controversial study in the Journal of the American Medical Association claims that popular drugs that are widely prescribed for depression only work in severe cases.

• Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania studied 728 adults after ranking their symptoms of depression.
  
• Those with moderate or minor depression receive little benefit from drugs like Lexapro, Prozac, or Paxil, which did not work better than sugar pills.
  
• However, those with severe depression, did benefit from the drugs.

"I think this study could dampen enthusiasm for anti-depression medications a bit , and that may be a good thing," said Dr. Erick Turner, a psychiatrist at Oregon Health and Science University. "People's expectations for the drugs will not be so high, and doctors won't be surprised if they are not curing every patient they see with medication."