As kids reach adolescence, they begin breaking away from their parents. They want to decide when they should do homework, if they should get an after-school job, and what time they should go to bed.

However, an article on the website of KMOT-TV (Minot, ND) indicates that parents of teens shouldn't give up on ensuring that their children get enough sleep:

A new study finds moms and dads shouldn’t completely give up the parenting basics when it comes to bedtime. The study, conducted by a Columbia University Medical Center doctor, finds a link between lack of sleep among teens and depression.

Researchers found adolescents who reported sleeping five or fewer hours a night were 71 percent more likely to suffer from depression, and 50 percent more likely to think about committing suicide than teens getting eight hours of rest.

Lana Curl, a sleep center director, suggests that parents keep computers and televisions out of their kids’ rooms. She also suggests taking away cell phones if kids are texting late into the night.

Labels: depression, research, sleep, teens

Watching excessive amounts of television in early adolescence may lead to depression in early adulthood for males, according to a study that appeared in the Archives of General Psychiatry.

Dr. Brian Primack surveyed 4,100 healthy young people when they were about 14 years to gauge their TV watching habits, and found that the average exposure was about 2.3 hours per day. Boys who watched the most television when they were 14 years old were more likely to be among the seven percent who developed depression at age 21 years. The effect did not hold true for girls.

Dr. Primack said television watching interrupts sleep, and sends messages to males to become more aggressive. TV may also interfere with the development of male identity, he said.

As is also the case with depression in adults, teen depression has been associated with a wide range of other problems, including substance abuse and suicide.

Labels: boys, depression, tv_watching

Children who experience academically failure as first graders are at risk for depression and lowered self-perceptions five years later, according to a new study from the University of Missouri.

Dr. Keith Herman and his colleagues assessed 474 students in first grade, and followed up with them when they entered middle school. Students who were struggling with math and reading as primary grade students held more negative self-beliefs as middle schoolers, and felt that they had less control over the outcomes in their lives.

Dr. Herman wrote that it is important for every child to feel successful in some area, such as music, athletics, or social skills, because "children's individual differences will always exist in academic skills."

Labels: depression, failures, self-esteem

A new government-sponsored study found that children with anxiety disorders improved the most when treated with a popular antidepressant along with psychotherapy.

Scientists from the National Institutes of Health studied 488 children ages 7 to 17 years old who have anxiety disorders. One fourth of the children took Sertraline (Zoloft); one fourth took Sertraline along with psychotherapy; one fourth had psychotherapy alone; and one fourth took placebos only. After three months, the children in the combined treatment group had the best results, with 81 percent showing improvement. In the therapy-only group, 60 percent improved, compared to a 55 percent improvement rate in the drug-alone group. Among the children who took placebos, 24 percent improved.

Anxiety affects about 20 percent of American children. Some become so tense that they will not leave their homes, refuse to sleep alone, etc. They can develop phobias and severe social anxiety, which can limit their participation in class discussions and other situations. "Improvement" in the NIH study meant that the children were able to do things they had refused to do before, such as sleep by themselves.

This study appeared in the New England Journal of Medicine.

Labels: anxiety, depression, medications

St. John's Wort, an herbal remedy for depression, does not help children with Attention Deficit Disorder/Hyperactivity (ADHD), according to a joint study from scientists at Harvard University, Bastyr University, and the University of Washington.

Wendy Weber, lead author, divided 54 children with ADHD into two groups. One group took St. John's Wort three times a day, and the other took a placebo. After eight weeks, the two groups showed no significant difference in their symptoms or side effects.

This study appears in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Labels: alternative_medicine, depression, herbs