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| HOLIDAY
SEASON IS UPON US! A TIME OF MANY
FEELINGS. . . |
| Welcome
to our November "News of
Hope".
The holiday season is a time
of many feelings - joys of sharing,
of giving, of receiving. It
is also a time of excess stress,
and, for some, of depression,
hurt and disappointments. Families
still coping with issues of
domestic violence, alcoholism,
other drug addictions, anger
issues, holidays hold another
connotation.
This issue is about a particular
emotional concern that afflicts
a large proportion of teens
but often goes undiscussed.
DEPRESSION
Our Survey of Hope, administered
to 20,000 teens over the years,
has also shown that teens have
far more depression than is
readily evident to most parents.
For example, we have had high
schools where 40% of the 10th
graders have indicated they
could use a support group for
feeling depressed. |
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| This
does NOT mean that all 40% have
clinical depression and need therapy
and/or meds. But it does indicate
a need for teens to have help
coping with the stresses, angers,
fears and other feelings that
they attempt to suppress and/or
hide to feel "normal"
and "acceptable." We
adults can help them with!
We can make
this holiday time one where
we LISTEN to the teens in our
worlds. Encourage them to express
the fears and anxieties they
have, without judgement or criticism.
Then, let's help them see the
positive choices available to
them that can alleviate the
depression that comes from feeling
hopeless, alone or overwhelmed
by life.
In addition, we can take notice
of those teens, even the youngest
of preteens, who are exhibiting
legitimate clinical depression
by reading the articles below.
Know what to look for and, then,
how to help them recognize and
receive professional help.
This holiday season can be filled
with MUCH to be grateful for!
When we help even one troubled
child SMILE again, the entire
holidays LIGHT UP! |
| Contents
of November "NEWS OF
HOPE" |
| • |
Our
Sincere Appreciation to
the ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER |
| • |
More
than Just Moody |
| • |
Suicidal
Thoughts: Weight Perception
Could Increase Risk of Suicide |
| • |
Adolescent Depression: Depressed
Teens Respond to Interpersonal
Therapy in School |
| • |
More
Doctors Focus on Treating
Teens |
| • |
FDA
Backs Away From Antidepressant
Warning |
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| More
than Just Moody |
 |
The
stories are as individual as a
fingerprint, but they contain
the same tragic elements. A
child who once was resilient
and cheerful becomes unrecognizable
in adolescence. Perhaps cutting
herself, perhaps inflamed by
a kind of mania that turns every
conversation into a wild conflict,
perhaps rejecting old friends
or indifferent to activities
that once were fulfilling. In
some cases the story includes
trips to the emergency room—maybe
because of an overdose of pills
or an episode of such wild behavior
that everyone in the family
was afraid.
And in nearly all these stories
agonized parents—feeling
guilty, helpless, and increasingly
desperate—watch their
child spinning out of control. |
These
elements are not the stuff of
raging hormonal imbalance or
garden-variety adolescent angst
but of depression or bipolar
disorder.
"Adolescents are obviously
moody," says University
of Pennsylvania psychiatrist
Dwight Evans, author of If Your
Adolescent Has Depression or
Bipolar Disorder: An Essential
Resource for Parents (Oxford
University Press). "But
when someone has a diagnosable
clinical illness there is lots
more going on than just moodiness."
Parents are generally the first
to observe changes in their
children, the first to seek
help when something seems not
to be right. But how is it possible
to distinguish between normal
acting-out and bipolar disorder?
Being able to do with little
or no sleep for days without
feeling tired, for example.
Speech that is much too fast,
changes topics too quickly,
or cannot be interrupted. Or
expressing an unrealistically
high opinion of oneself or one's
abilities. Adolescents with
bipolar disorder can sustain
their anger for hours without
relenting and destroy things
intentionally in a fit of rage.
"One Sunday she started
smashing every glass object
in her room," one parent
in the book recalls. "Then
she went and squirted toothpaste
all over the bathroom."
Adolescents who are depressed
are at the other side of the
behavior spectrum. They become
uninterested in friends and
activities and dislike going
to school. They complain of
tiredness or boredom and have
trouble getting along with others.
Often they are unusually irritable
or aggressive, or get into trouble,
whereas before they didn't.
About 15 percent of adolescents
have diagnosable clinical depression
and an additional 10 percent
suffer from a lower-level depression.
In other words, in any high
school classroom one out of
four kids is likely to be in
some depressed state, some much
more serious than others.
"The adolescent is not
acting in these ways for the
sake of being challenging or
difficult,'" says Evans.
"They are suffering from
an illness that is real. A parent
has to take the posture of not
giving up and advocating for
the adolescent in all different
situations, whether it's the
mental health system or the
school system."
And the consequences are serious.
In June, researchers at the
National Institutes of Mental
Health and Harvard University
released the results of a comprehensive
study of mental illness in the
United States. They found that
half of all lifetime cases of
mental illness begin by age
14 and that, untreated, many
of these disorders can lead
to substance abuse and more-difficult-to-treat
psychiatric illnesses, even
suicide.
Most important, however, is
that these illnesses can be
managed effectively. Evans points
out that "one should realistically
be very hopeful, especially
with the treatments that are
available today."
When adolescents with emotional
disorders receive treatment,
then the future can be one filled
with promise, rather than despair.
And finally, that is the hope
and the vision that sustains
all parents, during the complicated
period of life called adolescence.
-From U.S. News |
| More
RESOURCES OF HOPE on our website |
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| Suicidal
Thoughts: Weight Perception Could
Increase Risk of Suicide |
 |
One
medical risk associated with
both overweight and underweight
high school age Americans is
mental illness, including suicide.
Researchers at the Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention
wondered whether weight-conscious
teens who see themselves as
too fat or too thin have a higher
risk of suicide, regardless
of how much they actually weigh.
Researchers analyzed data from
a national survey of 13,601
high school students. Students
indicated their actual height
and weight. They then responded
to the question "How do
you describe your weight?" |
| with
five choices ranging from "very
underweight" to "very
overweight." To determine
the student's risk of suicide,
the researchers asked: "During
the past 12 months, did you ever
seriously consider attempting
suicide?" and "During
the past 12 months, how many times
did you actually attempt suicide?"
Teens
who answered either "very
underweight" or "very
overweight" were more likely
to indicate suicidal thoughts
or behaviors than those who
answered "about the right
weight." Further, an adolescent's
perception of his or her weight
was a better indicator of suicidal
thoughts and behaviors than
a more objective measure (body
mass index) calculated from
actual weight and height. Ethnicity
played an important role in
determining whether "very
underweight" or "very
overweight" drew the strongest
indications of suicidal behavior.
Attempted suicide responses
occurred more often when black
and Hispanic teens identified
themselves as "very underweight,"
but attempts were more likely
when white adolescents saw themselves
as "very overweight."
The
American Academy of Pediatrics
has a Web page on teen
suicide and
obesity,
including
links to information about nutrition
and exercise.
Also
check out the home
page for body mass index
of
the Centers for Disease
Control
and Prevention. |
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| Adolescent
Depression: Depressed Teens Respond
to Interpersonal Therapy in School |
| Treatments
for depression, such as drugs
and therapy, have mostly been
tested in university hospitals.
Researchers in New York found
out what happens when you take
one of those treatments to the
streets—or rather, the schools.
What
the researchers wanted to know:
Does interpersonal psychotherapy
in schools help depressed adolescents? |
 |
| What
they did: Depressed adolescents
who were referred for mental treatment
were eligible for the study. Kids
were randomly assigned to the
normal treatment for depression
at their school or to interpersonal
psychotherapy, a particular kind
of short-term therapy aimed at
relating the depression to personal
problems, then developing strategies
to deal with the problems. The
therapists were regular school
workers, including Ph.D. psychologists
and social workers, who were trained
especially for this study; all
of them were trained to screen
kids for the study, but only half
were trained in interpersonal
psychotherapy (the other half
did whatever was their usual treatment
for depression). What
they found: Adolescents
who had interpersonal therapy
had fewer depressive symptoms
than those who received the
usual treatment. They functioned
better and were doing better
with dating. Differences were
biggest for the most depressed
kids.
What
it means to you: This
particular kind of treatment
seems to help kids with depression,
even if it's performed in the
school by regular school employees.
Find
out more: http://www.depression-screening.org
The American Academy of Family
Physicians gives some tips on
what to do if your child is
depressed: http://www.aafp.org
- From U.S.
News |
| Survey
of Hope combined with Legacy of
Hope assemblies is identifying
depressed teens |
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| More
Doctors Focus on Treating Teen |
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When
16-year-old Marissa Skembo sees
her doctor, she jokes that their
conversation can go beyond typical
ailments to include anything a
teen might encounter — “drugs,
sex, rock ’n’ roll.”
For about
two years, Skembo has been seeing
a doctor who specializes in
treating patients ages 11 to
21.
“I think that there’s
a special art to caring for
a teenager — from earning
their trust to being able to
understand their behaviors,”
|
said
Skembo’s doctor, Laura
Scalfano, assistant professor
of pediatrics and the director
of adolescent medicine at the
University of Texas Southwestern.
While some teens are sent to
doctors who specialize in adolescents
for specific problems, others
use them as their primary care
doctors — a bridge between
their pediatrician and finding
a doctor as an adult.
“I
think that people are realizing
more and more that teenagers
aren’t just big kids,”
said Dr. James Fitzgibbon, director
of adolescent medicine at Akron
Children’s Hospital in
Ohio.
Doctors
who specialize in teens will
often make a point of spending
an extended amount of time talking
to their patients.
“Sometimes it takes a
long time to get the information
out of the young adult. Sometimes
you have to hear a lot of information
before you really get down to
the root cause,” said
Dr. Deborah Poteet-Johnson,
who has a private adolescent
medicine practice with another
doctor in Chattanooga, Tenn.
She said
that while some patients are
direct about their concerns,
some are more evasive.
“Others
will come in and say ’I’ve
got this bad cold. Oh, by the
way, can we talk about birth
control?”’ said
Poteet-Johnson, whose practice
has been steadily growing, mainly
word-of-mouth, since it opened
in January 2003.
While the
specialization began in the
1950s, an actual subspecialty
certificate in adolescent medicine
has only been offered since
1994 to those who have passed
the board in pediatrics and
internal medicine and since
2001 to those in family medicine.
It’s
something that few officially
pursue, however, with only about
550 people currently holding
the designation. Others have
focused on teens for their entire
careers, not bothering with
the subcertification. It requires
extra training and doesn’t
guarantee more money, said Dr.
Charles Irwin, editor of the
Journal of Adolescent Health
and a past president of the
Society for Adolescent Medicine.
Many times
the doctor will talk separately
to each and then both parent
and teen together, said Dr.
Bret J. Rudy, associate chief
of the adolescent medicine division
at the Children’s Hospital
of Philadelphia.
And at times,
a doctor needs to help a teen
talk to her parents, said Dr.
Rana Pascoe, who has a family
and adolescent practice at the
Baylor Family Health Center
at Mesquite, a Dallas suburb.
“Sometimes you are a mediator
between them,” she said.
- From the
Associated Press |
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| FDA
Backs Away From Antidepressant
Warning |
| The
Food and Drug Administration
has backed off its warning that
antidepressants such as Zoloft,
Paxil and Prozac can cause suicidal
actions among children and teens
taking those prescription drugs.
In a revised warning posted
last week on its Web site, the
FDA changed the wording to say
only that the drugs "increased
the risk of suicidal thinking
and behavior in short-term studies
of adolescents and children"
with depression and other psychiatric
disorders.
Limiting
the warning language to a risk
seen in studies, rather than
saying the drugs actually could
cause suicidal behavior in younger
patients, was a significant
retreat for the FDA -- and came
after several months of lobbying
by the pharmaceutical industry.
The agency has never approved
Zoloft, Paxil or most similar
drugs for use by younger patients
with depression. Even so, many
doctors prescribe them for children
and teens. Prozac is the only
such antidepressant approved
to treat depression in children.
The version of the warning that
the agency posted on its Web
site in October included this
sentence: "A causal role
for antidepressants in inducing
suicidality has been established
in pediatric patients."
The latest version omits that
sentence.
The sentence was not part of
the boldface black box warning
placed at the start of the insert
that accompanies any prescription,
but instead appeared in the
first paragraph of a separate
section on "Suicide Risk,"
which appeared just below the
black box.
The replacement sentence now
appears as the first sentence
inside the black box.
That first
sentence was broader in the
original version: "Antidepressants
increase the risk of suicidal
thinking and behavior in children."
The new version qualifies that
by inserting the phrase "in
short-term studies."
- From CNN.com |
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CONTACT
SUSIE NOW!! |
"If
I keep a green bough in my heart,
the singing bird will come."
Chinese Proverb
Wishing you
a bountiful Thanksgiving season!
From all of us at LEGACY
Susie Vanderlip - Ken Vanderlip
- Veronica Garcia
800-707-1977 |
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