Monday, September 27, 2004

Risk & Protective Factors for Substance Use Among American Indian or Alaska Native Youths
A new SAMHSA report, available from this page in both HTML and Acrobat formats - "SAMHSA's National Survey on Drug Use and Health combined data from 2002 and 2003 to examine three categories of risk factors for substance use (individual/peers, family, and school). These risk factors were compared between American Indian or Alaska Native youth and other racial and ethnic groups. These estimates are based on 46,310 respondents aged 12 to 17, representing a national population of 25 million youth. Nationally, there are an estimated 183,000 American Indian or Alaska Native youths aged 12 to 17. American Indian or Alaska Native youths were more likely than other youths to perceive moderate to no risk associated with substance use, to perceive their parents as not strongly disapproving of their substance use, and to believe that all or most of the students in their school get drunk at least once a week."  
  

Addressing the Interface Between Pediatrics and Psychiatry
Psychiatric Times article - "...collaboration between pediatrics and psychiatry has been a topic of interest, discussion and annoyance for half a century, not only in the United States, but also in a host of different countries and cultures. Parallel systems of care for pediatric physical and mental health problems persist despite recommendations to better integrate existing research-based knowledge into routine clinical practice (e.g., U.S. Public Health Service, 2000). Yet despite several "botched beginnings" between the disciplines and the imperfect nature of existing knowledge and practice, there truly is reason for hope. Psychiatry and its affiliated disciplines now offer a better product that is increasingly relevant to the pediatricians and family physicians who are being called on to manage youths with mental disorders in traditional medical settings."  
  

Does Residential Treatment Impact Pharmacotherapy in Children and Adolescents?
Psychiatric Times article - "There appears to be a subgroup of children and adolescents who, despite repeated brief hospitalizations, do not improve, but along the way, these patients accumulate medications. During long-term residential treatment, however, these patients do improve and their medications are reduced."  
  

Mental health problems in assisted living residents higher than expected
Indiana University press release at EurekAlert - "The first large scale comparative study of the mental health of assisted living residents has found a higher rate than expected of a range of mental health problems in this rapidly growing population. The study which, appears in the October issue of the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, reports that two thirds of 2100 assisted living residents studied exhibited mental health problem indicators. Half suffered from dementia and a quarter exhibited indicators of depression. More than half the assisted living residents studied took psychotropic medications including antipsychotics, antidepressants or sedatives. "