In findings that suggest more young Americans struggling with mental health issues are getting the help they need, a new poll shows that nearly a third of American adolescents and teens received some sort of mental health treatment in 2023. That translates to over 8 million young people between the ages of 12 and 17 getting counseling, medication or another treatment, the survey from the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) found. “We’re pleased to see that more people received mental health treatment in 2023 than the previous year,” SAMHSA Adminstrator Miriam Delphin-Rittmon said in an agency news release announcing the survey. Among adolescents, the biggest increase from 2022 was in the number of those getting mental health medications: Nearly 14% of those age 12 to 17 received such a prescription in 2023, up from 12.8% the year before. SAMHSA officials said they saw the increase shows that mental health treatment is finally being destigmatized. Rates of adolescents getting mental health treatment has increased virtually every year since 2009, though the agency noted that changes in how the survey was done were introduced in 2021. In 2022, the survey estimated that 7.7 million youths ages 12 to 17 had received mental health treatment of some kind. The increase in 2023 amounts to more than 500,000 more young people getting treatment, SAMHSA noted. Meanwhile, the rate of adolescents…  read on >  read on >

Loneliness has been a major concern in America, particularly in the wake of the social isolation imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic. But friendships are not in decline in the United States, a new study has found. An American adult has an average of four to five friends, similar to numbers reported in previous research from 1970 to 2015, researchers reported July 30 in the journal PLOS One. Only 2% of people describe themselves as friendless, which also is in line with data from prior years. However, many people say they’d like to spend more time with friends or have higher quality friendships, researchers found. “Americans long for greater closeness with friends; although over 75% were satisfied with the number of friends they had, 42% felt they were not as close to their friends as they would like,” wrote the research team led by Natalie Pennington, an assistant professor of communication studies at Colorado State University in Fort Collins. For the study, researchers surveyed nearly 6,000 American adults about their friendships and well-being, as part of an ongoing multi-year research project. The data showed that people often talk with friends in person, though texting and phone calls are also common. Overall, results show that the ongoing project could shed new light on friendship and well-being, researchers said. For example, they plan to consider the varying definitions…  read on >  read on >

The kids are not alright. New data shows a troubling 8% annual increase in the number of American children ages 8 to 12 who died by suicide, with the sharpest increase seen among girls. Suicide has now become the fifth leading cause of death among both male and female preteens, report a team led by Donna Ruch, of Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. Ruch works at the hospital’s Center for Suicide Prevention and Research. Her team published its findings July 30 in the journal JAMA Network Open. Rising rates of suicides among children have set off alarm bells for experts in recent years. “In 2021, the National Institute of Mental Health convened a research roundtable series to address the rising rates of suicides in preteens, defined as youths aged 8 to 12 years,” Ruch’s group noted. They said that, until now, there’s been little good data on suicides among preteens. To help remedy that, the Ohio group looked at data for 2001 through 2022 from a major federal online database that lists the underlying cause of death for U.S. preteens. Overall, 2,241 preteens are known to have died by suicide during the more than two decades covered by the database. Initially, there was a encouraging downward trend in these deaths between 2001 and 2007, Ruch’s group noted. However, beginning in 2008, that trend reversed.…  read on >  read on >

Three out of five young people who die by suicide don’t have any prior mental health diagnosis, a new study finds. People are missing the telltale signs that children, teens and young adults are troubled in ways that put them at risk for suicide, researchers said. “Our findings point to the critical need to increase equitable access to mental health screening, diagnosis and treatment for all youth,” said researcher Dr. Jennifer Hoffman, an emergency medicine physician with the Children’s Hospital of Chicago. The results also emphasize the need for safe gun storage, given how impulsive young people can be. There had been no signs of mental troubles in 2 of 3 suicides involving a gun, the most common method among young people in this study, researchers found. An estimated 22.6 million U.S. children live in households with firearms, and 4.5 million live in homes where guns are put away loaded in unlocked drawers and cabinets, researchers said. “To reduce the risk of youth suicide by firearms, counseling is needed to encourage parents to store firearms in the home safely. These messages should be delivered in community and school settings, in addition to doctors’ offices,” Hoffmann said in a hospital news release. “Secure storage laws, also known as child-access prevention laws, have also been demonstrated to reduce firearm suicide rates, and more states need to enact…  read on >  read on >

Smokers with diabetes or obesity who take semaglutide (Ozempic/Wegovy) might reap an added benefit: Help in quitting smoking. A yearlong study found that, compared to people using other diabetes drugs, fewer patients who were taking semaglutide sought out medical help to quit smoking. That suggests the drug might have already been helping them to quit, researchers noted. The finding wasn’t a complete surprise to researchers at the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), since “clinical anecdotes that patients treated with semaglutide … [have] reported reduced desire to smoke” have already been widespread, they said. The new study was published July 29 in the Annals of Internal Medicine. How might semaglutide cut down on smoking? The researchers noted these drugs (along with Mounjaro and Zepbound) are glucagon-like peptide receptor agonists (GLP-1s), which work to suppress appetite by targeting specific receptors in the brain. Studies in mice have shown that GLP-1s also reduce “nicotine-induced increases in dopamine release” in a specific brain area, “a common mechanism underlying the rewarding effects of addictive drugs,” the researchers explained. The new study was led by NIDA director Dr. Nora Volkow. Her team analyzed data from seven trials, all involving smokers who also had type 2 diabetes. Almost 223,000 patients were tracked for a year, and they took a variety of diabetes meds, including insulin, metformin and sulfonylureas, among others. A…  read on >  read on >

Doctors might be authority figures, but a new review suggests hospital patients feel more comfortable when their physician comes across as less imposing. Getting to a patient’s eye level while talking about their diagnosis or care makes a huge difference, researchers found. Sitting or crouching next to a patient’s bedside prompted more feelings of trust and satisfaction, and even helped patients recover better, according to results published recently in the Journal of General Internal Medicine. “We hope our work will bring more recognition to the significance of sitting and the general conclusion that patients appreciate it,” said lead researcher Dr. Nathan Houchens, an associate professor of medicine with the University of Michigan School of Medicine. For the review, researchers analyzed results from 14 previous studies on the impact of a doctor’s posture when they’re at a patient’s bedside. One study found that half of patients preferred talking to a sitting physician, while only 17% liked it when their doctor stood during a consultation. Other studies indicated that medical professionals who sit with a patient prompt more positive impressions than those who stand. For example, nurses who sat at bedside for three to five minutes at the start of each shift wound up improving patients’ perceptions of their communications. Likewise, seated doctors had more patients who said the doctor “always” listens carefully to them and explains…  read on >  read on >

Losing someone close to you can make you age faster, a new study finds. People who lost a parent, partner, sibling or child showed signs of older biological age compared with those who hadn’t experienced such a loss, researchers reported July 29 in the journal JAMA Network Open. “Our study shows strong links between losing loved ones across the life course from childhood to adulthood and faster biological aging in the U.S.,” said lead researcher Allison Aiello, a professor of health longevity with the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, in New York City. Biological aging involves the gradual decline in how well your cells, tissues and organs function. Scientists measure this type of aging using DNA markers known as epigenetic clocks, and they can compare it against a person’s calendar age to see how much different factors cause premature aging. For this study, researchers analyzed data on nearly 4,500 people who provided blood samples for DNA testing as part of a long-term study on health. The participants were tracked from their teenage years into adulthood. Researchers tracked deaths among people close to the participants, to see how these losses might relate to their biological age. People who had experienced two or more losses during their lifetime had older biological ages, based on epigenetic testing, researcher found. Further, two or more losses in adulthood…  read on >  read on >

A new test gauging levels of key proteins in the blood was far more accurate than doctor assessments in spotting Alzheimer’s disease in people with early-stage illness. The test, called APS2 (the amyloid probability score 2), was 91% accurate in diagnosing Alzheimer’s in people with mild cognitive decline or early dementia, compared to the 61% success rate of primary care doctors who examined the same patients. The test isn’t yet approved for routine use. But Dr Teresa D’Amato, director of geriatric emergency medicine at Northwell Health in Forest Hills, NY, called the new data “very exciting.” “This blood test would be great as a first round of diagnostic testing because it it looks like it’s pretty accurate,” said D’Amato, who wasn’t involved in the new study. The findings were published July 28 in the Journal of the American Medical Association. They were published simultaneously at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference in Philapdelphia. An accurate, easily administered blood test for Alzheimer’s could be a game-changer, according to a team of dementia experts who wrote an editorial accompanying the research. “Diagnosing Alzheimer’s is challenging, especially in primary care. Having a reliable blood test is essential to help primary care physicians make an early and accurate diagnosis,” the editorialists said. They included Dr. Stephen Salloway, of Brown University, Dr. Christopher Rowe, of the University of Melbourne, Australia, and…  read on >  read on >

Peak asthma month is upon parents as summer draws to a close, experts warn. “September is known as Asthma Peak Month because kids have returned to school, and viruses are being passed around,” said allergist Dr. Gailen Marshall, president of the American College of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology. “September also sees higher levels of environmental allergens like mold and ragweed. In addition, children may have stopped their regular asthma management routine over the summer,” Marshall added in a ACAAI news release. “Generally, allergists see an increase in patients in September — more asthma attacks and more hospitalizations — especially in children.” But there are ways parents can help their kids keep their allergy and asthma symptoms at bay as the school year resumes, Marshall said. Find an allergist. A pre-school appointment with a board-certified allergist can arm parents with an allergy or asthma action plan that identifies triggers and prepares prescriptions. Asthmatic kids under the care of an allergist have a 77% reduction in lost time from school, Marshall said. Teamwork helps. It’s important to work with a child’s teacher regarding their allergies and asthma, Marshall said. Most teachers have experience helping kids with asthma. Parents should be sure to share their child’s treatment plan with school staff, including their asthma triggers and any treatments or medications they use. Avoid viruses. Respiratory viruses like the…  read on >  read on >