Growing numbers of American kids and teens are cutting or burning themselves, banging their heads against walls, pulling out their hair and even trying to die by suicide. But figuring out who is at highest risk for harming themselves has been a daunting challenge. Until now. Researchers report they have developed risk profiles that can help doctors pinpoint which kids or teens are in the most danger. “The U.S. is in the midst of a mental health crisis, with mental health diagnoses and hospitalizations surging over the past few years, and many of these hospitalizations are for self-harm events or concern for future self-harm,” said study author Dr. James Antoon, an assistant professor of pediatrics and hospital medicine at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. “Self-harm is a big bucket of events from mild things like cutting on the arms or thighs to taking so much Tylenol that you die on purpose or jumping out of a window, and we wanted to find out which kids require hospitalization and more intensive treatment and monitoring,” he said. There’s a pronounced shortage of in-patient hospital beds for kids with mental health issue in the United States, which makes the situation even more dire. Knowing which kids are at the highest risk can help make better use of these limited resources, Antoon noted.…  read on >  read on >

Suicides among the youngest U.S. teenagers were rising for years before the pandemic — with school stress, social media and guns standing as potential factors, according to a new study. Researchers found that between 2008 and 2018, the suicide rate among 13- and 14-year-olds nationwide more than doubled — from roughly two deaths per 100,000 teens in 2008, to five per 100,000 a decade later. It was a stark reversal of a decline that began in the late-1990s. And, in fact, suicide is now the leading cause of death for 13- and 14-year-olds in the United States, said senior researcher Dr. Sarah Wood, a professor of pediatrics at Florida Atlantic University’s Schmidt College of Medicine. The study — published online recently in the Annals of Pediatrics and Child Health — comes amid growing concerns about U.S. kids’ mental well-being. For years, studies have been charting rising rates of depression, anxiety, and suicidal thoughts and behavior. And the latest government surveys of U.S. high school students continue to paint a bleak picture. “In my mind, this study is another warning bell,” Wood said. “Things are not improving. They’re getting worse.” Much has been said about the pandemic’s effects on kids’ mental health. And while that’s true, the pandemic added to problems that have long existed, said Joseph Feinglass, a research professor at Northwestern University Feinberg School…  read on >  read on >

While COVID-19’s toll on health and wellness has been obvious, the virus has also hit people in the wallet. A new study links surviving COVID to financial challenges later, especially for folks who were hospitalized with the virus. “More than half of Americans now report having had COVID-19, and more than 450,000 have been hospitalized, so the potential number experiencing serious financial issues linked to their experience with the virus is high,” said Dr. Nora Becker of the University of Michigan Institute for Healthcare Policy and Innovation, in Ann Arbor. Compared to people whose financial health was measured before the virus, those who had COVID-19 were more likely to have bills so overdue that they were sent to a collection agency. They were also more likely to have a low credit score. To learn more, researchers from University of Michigan and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore linked health care records and financial records of more than 132,000 people in Michigan. Patients’ identification was removed. About 42% of patients who had been hospitalized with COVID-19 had a low credit score six months later, the study found. That compared to 34% of a similar group who hadn’t yet required a hospital stay for COVID-19 but later needed one. The gap was smaller, but significant, between the two groups of non-hospitalized patients. About 27% of the patients who…  read on >  read on >