Mental Health News
ADHD Often Linked to Other Mental Health Disorders
Children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder are more likely to have other mental health or neurodevelopmental conditions, and their social and educational functions worsen with more comorbidities, according to a study published online Feb. 7 in Pediatrics.
TUESDAY, Feb. 8 (HealthDay News) — Children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) are more likely to have other mental health or neurodevelopmental conditions, and their social and educational functions worsen with more comorbidities, according to a study published online Feb. 7 in Pediatrics.
Kandyce Larson, Ph.D., of the UCLA Center for Healthier Children, Families, and Communities in Los Angeles, and colleagues examined the patterns of comorbidity, functioning, and service use for 5,028 children with ADHD. They performed a cross-sectional analysis using data from the U.S. 2007 National Survey of Children’s Health.
The researchers found a parent-reported prevalence of ADHD of 8.2 percent. Children with ADHD were significantly more likely to have a learning disability, conduct disorder, anxiety, depression, and speech problems compared to children without ADHD. Children with ADHD were also more likely to have difficulty in school and socially. They also had higher odds of having poor parent-child communication and higher levels of parent aggravation. Most children with ADHD had at least one comorbidity, and poor children were 3.8 times more likely to have three or more comorbidities than well-off children. As the number of comorbidities increased, the children’s function declined and the use of health and educational services increased.
“Professionals and parents need to be aware of the high prevalence of mental health/neurodevelopmental comorbidities among school-aged children with ADHD in the United States. Patterns of worsening function with increasing numbers of comorbidities reflect the challenge of meeting the needs of children with complex clinical pictures within the current system of care,” the authors write.
Smoking pot speeds mental illness
CANNABIS can speed up the appearance of psychotic illness, a ground-breaking Australian study has found .
Dr Matthew Large, a staff specialist in mental health from the University of New South Wales and the Prince of Wales Hospital, said the risks are especially high for younger people, whose brains are still developing.
“What our research has found is that cannabis smoking brings schizophrenia on early by an average of 2.7 years,” he said.
For young people who smoke cannabis regularly, instead of having about a 1% chance of developing schizophrenia during their lifetime, they would end up with something like a 5% chance of developing schizophrenia, said Dr Large.
His research, that pulled together data on 20,000 patients and drew on more than 80 international studies, is published in the journal Archives of General Psychiatry.
The study has again prompted drug experts to call for regulation, not prohibition, of marijuana.
With about 33% of the Australian population and 18% of secondary school students using the drug, in a few years there would be more Australians smoking cannabis than smoking tobacco, said Dr Alex Wodak, the director of the Alcohol and Drug Service at Sydney’s St Vincent’s Hospital and head of the Australian Drug Law Reform Foundation.
“Having a black market of that size is not good for anybody,” he said.
“An unregulated cannabis market is about profits, not ethics. We have a responsibility to reduce the harm associated with cannabis use.”
He recently said he believed the time was right for a trial of a hash coffee shop in the community of Nimbin.
David Halliwell, a Fellow of the Chapter of Addictive Medicine Unit at the Royal Australasian College of Physicians and a long-term Northern Rivers resident said: “At the moment, the cannabis industry is just kept in the dark and prohibited.
“The laws have failed.
“We have an illegal market run by criminals. Regulating supply would be a much better way (of controlling cannabis use).”
South Carleton High School Does it for Daron
Summary: South Carleton High School is awash in the colour of purple today to draw attention to youth depression and mental illness in general in honour of Daron Richardson.
South Carleton High School is awash in the colour of purple today to draw attention to youth depression and mental illness in general in honour of Daron Richardson.
School Principal Trudy Garland says students Cydney Roesler, Rebecca Watson, Paige Watson, Logan Watson, Megan Carty, Mackenzie Coney, and Hannah Driver are selling wrist bands to raise funds for the Daron Richardson Foundation partnered with the Royal Ottawa for Mental Health. Meanwhile Manager of Cafeteria Services Kelly Watson baked cookies and cupcakes with purple sprinkles and the slushie machine is purple in honour of this special day.
Daron’s 15th birthday would have been celebrated today. February 8, 2011 has now been dubbed Do It For Daron Purple Pledge Day, where people are being asked to wear purple in support of the Daron Richardson Fund at the Royal Ottawa Foundation for Mental Health. Purple was Daron’s favourite colour.
The Royal Ottawa Foundation hopes the movement will help youth address any problems they may be experiencing. The funds will go towards an early identification and intervention program for youth.
Ms. Garland says the students involved in the South Carleton High School project played in community hockey games with Daron over the years and wanted to participate in honouring her memory. She added, “They believe it is important to bring awareness regarding mental health to youth and who better to do it, but youth themselves. Kids talk to kids and they listen.”
South Carleton High School is located at 3673 McBean Street in Richmond.