Social Work Today E-Zine

According to a new study from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, it appears how infants respond to stress is linked to if they have a particular form of a certain gene. Just as significantly, researchers say they have also found that good parenting—as early as within the first year of a child’s life—can counter the effect the gene has in babies who initially do not respond well to stressful situations. These findings appeared in a recent issue of Child Development.

Researchers looked at 142 infants over the first year of their lives, when the children were 3, 6, and 12 months old. On each occasion, they were placed in a stressful situation and researchers measured the infants’ heart rates, looking specifically at vagal tone, which normally limits heart rate, but during challenging situations, the level of vagal tone goes down, allowing heart rate to increase so the body can actively deal with the challenge. Researchers also collected DNA from the infants to see which form of a dopamine receptor gene they carried.

When the babies were 6 months old, researchers also videotaped the mothers and their infants playing together for 10 minutes, and assessed whether the mothers’ behavior was high or low in sensitivity.

At 3 and 6 months old, infants with the form of the dopamine gene associated with risky behaviors did not display a decrease in vagal tone when stressed, while those with the nonrisk version of the gene did. At these early ages, it did not appear to matter whether mothers were sensitive or not, according to Cathi Propper, PhD, the study’s lead author and a research scientist at the University of North Carolina’s Center for Developmental Science.

However, by the time the infants were 12 months old, the pattern changed. Infants with the risk form of the gene whose mothers were highly sensitive now showed the expected cardiac response when under stress—while those with the at-risk gene form who had insensitive mothers did not.

“Our findings provide further support for the notion that the development of complex behavioral and physiological responses is not the result of nature or nurture, but rather a combination of the two,” Propper says. “They also illustrate the importance of parenting not just for the development of children’s behavior, but for the underlying physiological mechanisms that support this behavior.

— Source: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

When it comes to gender roles in society, what you think may affect what you earn. A new study has found that men who believe in traditional roles for women earn more money than men who don’t, and women with more egalitarian views don’t make much more than women with a more traditional outlook.

Timothy Judge, PhD, and Beth Livingston from the University of Florida, analyzed data from a nationally representative study of men and women who were interviewed four times between 1979 and 2005. A total of 12,686 people, aged 14 to 22 at the beginning of the study, participated; there was a 60% retention rate over the course of the study. Results were published in a recent issue of the Journal of Applied Psychology.

At each of the four interviews, participants were asked about their views on gender roles in the workforce and at home. The researchers looked specifically at gender role views as a predictor of a person’s earnings. They controlled for job complexity, number of hours worked, and education. Their analyses showed that men in the study who said they had more traditional gender role attitudes made an average of about $8,500 more annually than those who had less traditional attitudes. For women, however, the situation was reversed. Women who held more traditional views about gender roles made an average of $1,500 less annually than the women with more egalitarian views.

Notably, the results also did not fundamentally change when other factors were controlled, such as industry, occupation, hours worked, and number of children. “These results cannot be explained by the fact that, in traditional couples, women are less likely to work outside the home,” Judge says.

— Source: American Psychological Association

Teen smokers who volunteer for programs to help them quit are more hooked on tobacco than other teens who smoke, new West Virginia University research has found. The teens believe quitting is a good idea, but they aren’t fully confident they’ll be able to kick the tobacco habit. What’s more, teens who volunteer for help are 60% more likely to use smokeless tobacco and more than 200% more likely to smoke cigars when compared with teen smokers nationally.

The conclusions, published in Tobacco Induced Diseases, come from analysis of data involving almost 6,000 teen smokers who enrolled in Not On Tobacco (N-O-T) between 1998 and 2006. Developed at WVU, N-O-T is the most widely used smoking-cessation program for teens in the nation. “This is the first time anyone has looked at the characteristics of teens who’ve joined the school-based N-O-T programs,” says Kimberly Horn, EdD, lead author of the study. “Knowing more about these students will help us to tailor and market the program. N-O-T has reached thousands of teens, but we can do better.”

The study, in highlighting which teen smokers join the program, also will help researchers understand who is not joining. It is important to come up with ways to better entice those missing teens to show up, Horn says. “The tobacco industry is notorious for effective marketing—it knows the audience. We need to be more effective than the industry in helping teens achieve the goal of quitting.”

— Source: West Virginia University Health Sciences Center

A six-year study published in a recent edition of the Journal of American College Health and conducted at the University of Virginia has found exposing college students to information that corrected misperceptions about campus drinking patterns resulted in dramatic reductions in alcohol-related negative consequences.

According to the study authors, the results are in direct contrast to national trends on negative consequences of drinking on campuses and offer what the authors call “cautious optimism and encouragement for those engaged in campus alcohol and drug prevention nationally.”

Starting in 1999, the University of Virginia embarked on a social norms marketing campaign to better inform first-year students about drinking behaviors as reported in student surveys. In general, according to these surveys, students actually drink less than their peers perceive.

Social norms research has shown that students are influenced by perceptions, whether right or wrong, and tend to behave according to what they perceive to be normal. Social norms marketing is an approach that communicates accurate information about the prevalence of healthy behaviors and attitudes among peers.

Once the marketing campaign had been launched, the researchers began surveying students who had been exposed to the campaign about 10 alcohol-related consequences, from missing class to having unprotected sex to getting in trouble with police.

During the study, students’ odds of experiencing none of 10 alcohol-related consequences nearly doubled, and multiple consequences decreased by more than one half for all undergraduate students.

First-year students exposed to the campaign reported a 22% reduction in the odds of experiencing multiple negative consequences and a 24% reduction in the odds of having an estimated blood alcohol content of greater than 0.08 the last time they partied.

— Source: University of Virginia

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently launched Ask Medicare, a new initiative to help family caregivers—those who are family members or friends who help people with Medicare—access and use valuable healthcare information, services, and resources.

More than 44 million Americans provide care to a loved one, friend, or neighbor, valued in economic terms at $350 billion annually, according to a recent report by AARP. The new initiative will provide a one-stop Web page (www.medicare.gov/caregivers) for caregivers that provides easy access to useful information about Medicare and other essential resources to help with caregiving.

The Web site will provide links to key partner organizations that assist caregivers and beneficiaries, and present personal stories from caregivers in the community. Support information and tools to help caregivers address common problems will also be available. As part of the initiative, CMS will launch an e-newsletter for caregivers that will deliver information into subscribers’ e-mail boxes.

“Through Ask Medicare and the new e-newsletter, CMS will help provide more information to caregivers, helping to streamline caring for Medicare beneficiaries and ultimately improve their quality of life and that of their loved ones,” said Kerry Weems, CMS acting administrator.

— Source: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

Feeling connected to others is vital to a person’s mental well-being, as well as physical health, research at the University of Chicago shows. The studies, reported in a new book, Loneliness: Human Nature and the Need for Social Connection, show that a sense of rejection or isolation disrupts not only abilities, will power, and perseverance, but also key cellular processes deep within the human body.

The findings suggest that chronic loneliness belongs among health risk factors such as smoking, obesity, or lack of exercise, according to lead author John Cacioppo, PhD, the Tiffany & Margaret Blake Distinguished Service Professor in psychology at the university.

“Loneliness not only alters behavior, but loneliness is related to greater resistance to blood flow through your cardiovascular system,” Cacioppo says. “Loneliness leads to higher rises in morning levels of the stress hormone cortisol, altered gene expression in immune cells, poorer immune function, higher blood pressure, and an increased level of depression. Loneliness also is related to difficulty getting a deep sleep and a faster progression of Alzheimer’s disease, says Cacioppo. He drew on recent research in preparing the book, written with William Patrick, the former science editor at Harvard University Press.

It is not solitude or physical isolation itself, but rather the subjective sense of isolation that Cacioppo’s work shows to be so profoundly disruptive. Yet, outward circumstances such as moving to a new community or losing an intimate partner can trigger loneliness. The problem of social isolation will likely grow as conventional societal structures fade. The average household size is decreasing, and by 2010, 31 million Americans—roughly 10% of the population—will live alone. Sociologists also have found that people report significantly fewer close friends and confidants than those a generation ago.

— Source: University of Chicago

The first study to include a significant number of aggressive girls with conduct problems indicates that psychological conditions including conduct disorder may have separate causes in the two sexes. “Previous studies have focused on boys because boys with conduct disorder outnumber girls by a 10-to-1 ratio,” says Theodore Beauchaine, a University of Washington (UW) associate professor of psychology and lead author of the study.

In the study, UW researchers took physiological measurements of 110 boys and 65 girls aged 8 to 12 while they played a computerized game. About one half of the boys and girls met the criteria for conduct and/or oppositional defiant order. The other boys and girls had no psychological problems.

The game had the children, who were seated at a monitor, look at a number that appeared on the screen, and then press the same number on a keyboard. A correct response enabled them to win money. The faster and more accurately they played the more money could earn. “It was not unusual for some children to make $50 playing this game, which is a considerable amount of money for kids of these ages,” says Beauchaine. “Normal boys get pretty excited while they play, but boys with conduct problems don’t. However, we found no differences in the way the groups of girls responded.”

Biological markers that seem to make boys more vulnerable to conduct problems appear to be largely inherited, according Beauchaine. He adds that the failure to find a biological marker among girls with conduct problems suggests that this behavior is driven by different causes. They may be strong social or environmental influences such as ineffective parenting or simply hanging around the wrong kids.

— Source: University of Washington

Intelligence offers some protection against succumbing to immediate gratification, but psychologists have been unsure why. Yale University researchers report that they may have found the first clue to the mystery in an area of the brain that governs abstract problem solving and goal management. The findings were recently reported online in the journal Psychological Science.

"How do you juggle what you desperately want to do right now versus what you know to be best for yourself long term? Its not easy for anyone," says Jeremy Gray, an assistant professor of psychology and a coauthor of the study.

Gray and colleagues wanted to understand why people with better self-control also tended to score higher on intelligence tests. So they conducted functional magnetic resonance imaging tests on 103 participants undergoing working memory tests. They also measured "delay discounting,'' or the strength of the desire to take a smaller award immediately when a greater award could be obtained by waiting.

Participants who showed greater resistance during the reward tests also had better performance and greater activation of working memory, especially in an area of the brain called the anterior prefrontal cortex, which helps integrate a many types of information and manage complex problems. These subjects also tended to score higher on intelligence tests. However, there was no difference in activity in other areas of the brain between those who waited for the higher award and those who preferred to take lesser rewards immediately.

The work suggests that exercises aimed at improving one's ability to process complex information might also help people increase their self-control. "Understanding the factors that support better self-control, including the subjective value of immediate gratification, is relevant to a host of important behaviors, ranging from saving for retirement to maintaining physical and mental health,'' the authors concluded.

— Source: Yale University

Older adults may be better able to comply with medication regimens by working with providers to fill out simple paper tables that track what they take and when they take it, according to a report in a recent Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied. Psychologists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign found that when pairs of older adults filled out a written matrix listing medications and instructions by days and times to take them, they solved medication-related problems more efficiently and accurately, especially for the complex medication schedules increasingly common among older adults.

In one experiment, 96 participants (average age of 69) were randomly assigned to the role of patient or provider. These pairs were randomly assigned to use a predesigned medtable, a blank piece of paper, or no aid. To simulate real life, the researchers varied information about both medication and patient. There were both complex and simple patient conditions as well as complex and simple medication conditions. The “patient-provider” pairs completed problems created by combining medication and patient complexity. Then, the pairs collaborated on schedules that reflected medication and patient constraints. The researchers assessed problem-solving accuracy, completion time, and efficiency.

Compared with the no-aid condition, the use of both blank paper and the medtable increased collaborative problem-solving accuracy and efficiency while reducing subjective workload, primarily for the complex medication problems. Researchers noticed that participants found it hard to use that particular design of the medtable, probably because it was too rigid about meal times.

A second experiment included 64 older adults (average age of 69), but used a redesigned medtable and increased complex problem-solving time. With these changes, the authors found that the medtable compared with blank paper supported significantly more accurate and efficient collaborative problem solving. These benefits occurred primarily for the complex-schedule problems.

The authors see the medtable as a tool most suitable for pharmacists or nurses who help chronically ill older adults manage complex medication regimens. They wrote that the medtable may also be suitable when time is less of a barrier, such as when nurses or caregivers work with older patients at home. In the future, electronic medtables could possibly expedite the updating of comprehensive medication lists. The authors wrote, “It would be important for patients to take home a copy of their medtable schedule to guide adherence.”

— Source: American Psychological Association

Two newer atypical antipsychotic medications were no more effective than an older conventional antipsychotic in treating child and adolescent schizophrenia and may lead to more metabolic side effects, according to a new study funded by the National Institutes of Health's National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) and published online in the American Journal of Psychiatry.

The six-year, multisite Treatment of Early Onset Schizophrenia Study (TEOSS) included 116 youths between the ages of 8 and 19 diagnosed with early onset schizophrenia spectrum disorder. The TEOSS team randomly assigned the children to eight weeks of either olanzapine (Zyprexa) or risperidone (Risperdal)—both new generation atypical antipsychotics—or to the older conventional antipsychotic molindone (Moban) plus benztropine, a medication often used to reduce side effects like uncontrolled shaking or tremor that can be associated with molindone.

Response rates after eight weeks of treatment were comparable among the three medications—50% of the children taking molindone improved, 46% taking risperidone improved, and 34% taking olanzapine improved. Children taking olanzapine or risperidone improved within the first two weeks, while the children on molindone improved within three weeks.

The treatment groups did differ in side effects. The children taking olanzapine gained about 13 pounds during the trial on average, while children taking risperidone gained about 8 pounds, and those taking molindone did not gain weight. The olanzapine group also showed increases in cholesterol levels and other metabolic disruptions that may have become dangerous. The outcome prompted the safety review board to end the olanzapine arm of the study in 2006.

"Atypical antipsychotics are commonly used to treat kids with [early onset schizophrenia spectrum], but these results question the wisdom of that approach," says lead author Linmarie Sikich, MD, of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "They also remind us that we need to develop safer, more effective medications to treat these children, given the limited effectiveness of both the atypical and the conventional medications."

— Source: National Institute of Mental Health

In a room dubbed the E-WoMP (exploratory world-music playground) that serves as the centerpiece of the Music-Play Project housed at Florida State University’s (FSU) College of Music, children with autism spectrum disorders are making impressive gains in creativity, emotional regulation, and social participation.

FSU ethnomusicologist and associate professor Michael B. Bakan likes to call such gains “response-ability.” He’s the director of the innovative medical ethnomusicology program, which uses an array of unusual musical instruments from around the world for improvisational music-play activities that help create a unique therapeutic environment.

“Our program emphasizes ability and personhood over disability and ‘treatment’ and accepts that there are different ways of interacting, just as there are different ways of making music in different cultures,” says Bakan. “The Music-Play Project fosters the growth of response-ability, and in turn, happiness, because it gives children the chance to contribute to the cocreation of culture who too often are characterized as being incapable of doing so.”

The Music-Play Project welcomes children three at a time to the E-WoMP, where they can choose from among safety-modified world-music options such as Balinese gamelan instruments, a West Javanese angklung (tuned bamboo-tubes rattle), and a West African gyil (xylophone), along with less exotic instruments. Bakan describes all the instruments as “high yield for low input” because they yield satisfying sounds with minimal effort and require little or no technical competence.

“The medium of free music-play can help children with [autism spectrum disorders] to gain confidence and self-esteem, and we are seeing this bear fruit not just in the E-WoMP but also at home, at school, and in peer relationships,” Bakan says.

— Source: Florida State University

Low-birth weight children appear to be at higher risk for psychiatric disturbances from childhood through high school than normal-birth weight children, according to a report in Archives of General Psychiatry. In addition, low-birth weight children from urban communities may be more likely to have attention problems than suburban low-birth weight children.

Kipling M. Bohnert, BA, and Naomi Breslau, PhD, of Michigan State University, examined the long-term association between low-birth weight and psychiatric problems among 413 children from a socially disadvantaged community in Detroit and 410 children from a middle-class Detroit suburb. Children’s psychiatric disturbances were rated by mothers and teachers at the ages of 6, 11, and 17. Psychiatric disturbances were separated into three categories: externalizing, including delinquent and aggressive behavior; internalizing, including withdrawn behavior and anxiety/depression; and attention, including characteristic symptoms of ADHD such as not being able to pay attention for long or difficulty following directions.

Low-birth weight children were more likely to exhibit externalizing and internalizing problems than normal-birth weight children in their community. “An increased risk of attention problems was associated with low birth weight only in the urban community and was greater among very low-birth weight children (weighing 1,500 grams or less) than heavier low-birth weight children (weighing 1,501 grams to 2,500 grams),” the authors wrote. “In the suburban community, there was no increased risk for attention problems associated with low birth weight. Psychiatric outcomes of low birth weight did not vary across ages of assessments.”

— Source: American Medical Association

Older age among fathers may be associated with an increased risk for bipolar disorder in their offspring, according to a report in a recent issue of Archives of General Psychiatry.

Emma M. Frans, MMedSc, of the Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, and colleagues identified 13,428 patients in Swedish registers with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder. For each one, they randomly selected from the registers five controls who were the same sex and born the same year but did not have bipolar disorder.

When comparing the two groups, the older an individual’s father, the more likely he or she was to have bipolar disorder. After adjusting for the age of the mother, participants with fathers older than 29 years had an increased risk. “After controlling for parity [number of children], maternal age, socioeconomic status, and family history of psychotic disorders, the offspring of men 55 years and older were 1.37 times more likely to be diagnosed as having bipolar disorder than the offspring of men aged 20 to 24 years,” the authors wrote.

The offspring of older mothers also had an increased risk, but it was less pronounced than the paternal effect, the authors noted. For early-onset bipolar disorder (diagnosed before the age of 20), the effect of the father’s age was much stronger and there was no association with the mother’s age.

“Personality of older fathers has been suggested to explain the association between mental disorders and advancing paternal age,” the authors wrote. “However, the mental disorders associated with increasing paternal age are under considerable genetic influence.”

— Source: American Medical Association

Women with depression may be much more likely than men to get relief from citalopram, a commonly used, inexpensive antidepressant drug, according to a new national study published online in the Journal of Psychiatric Research. But members of both sexes may find that it helps ease their depression symptoms.

Researchers from the University of Michigan Depression Center and their colleagues from around the country tested the drug’s ability to help patients with depression achieve remission, or total relief from their symptoms, in a multiyear study.

The gender differences emerged from a detailed analysis of data from 2,876 men and women who had a clear diagnosis of major depression, and took citalopram over a number of weeks, with the doses increasing over time.

In the end, women were 33% more likely to achieve a full remission of their depression, despite the fact that women in the study were more severely depressed than the men when the study began. The study showed no differences between men and women in side effects, the amount of time that patients stuck to taking the drug, or the amount of time it took for them to achieve remission of their symptoms.

But the study’s authors are quick to caution that their findings don’t mean that citalopram should only be used in women. Raw data from the study show that 24% of men achieved remission with the drug, compared with 29% of women. Rather, they note that many people with depression need to try several treatments to find the one that’s right for them and will produce lasting results.

— Source: University of Michigan Health System

Elderly patients who are prescribed a conventional, or first-generation, antipsychotic medication are at an increased risk of death from cardiovascular or respiratory diseases as compared with those who take an atypical, or second-generation, antipsychotic medication, according to a study funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

The new study, posted online in the Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, adds to growing evidence that conventional antipsychotics may not be safer than atypical anitpsychotics for the elderly. Researchers had previously identified that such second-generation medications may pose increased mortality; the new study compares specific causes of death among elderly patients newly started on conventional vs. atypical antipsychotics.

In 2005, after studies suggested second-generation antipsychotics increased the risk of death by 60% in elderly patients with dementia, the FDA issued a public health advisory, which did not extend to first-generation antipsychotics. However, the new study provides additional evidence of the risks associated with first-generation versions for elderly patients. While this study does show an association with cardiovascular deaths, further studies will be needed to confirm this association.

Authors examined records of all seniors in British Columbia who took either first-generation or second-generation antipsychotics between 1996 and 2004, including 12,882 patients who commenced use of conventional and 24,359 patients who began a regimen of atypical antipsychotic medications. Of 3,821 total deaths within the first 180 days of use, cardiovascular deaths accounted for 49% of the excess deaths.

— Source: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

The National Alliance on Mental Illness (NAMI) is preparing to grade each of the 50 states on mental health services and invites the public to help by taking an online survey.

In 2006, NAMI's "Grading the States: A Report on America's Mental Healthcare System for Serious Mental Illnesses" provided the first comprehensive assessment in 15 years of publicly funded mental health services, establishing a benchmark against which future progress could be measured.

The national average was a D.

The next report card will come out in 2009 and will look at which states improved and if any states are sliding backwards, while also identifying strengths and weaknesses from the perspective of the people they serve.

NAMI is asking individuals and families affected by serious mental illnesses to take the survey to measure real world experiences. Anyone age 18 or older who has been diagnosed with a serious mental illness or who has an adult family member with a diagnosed mental illness can take the survey.

Specific survey questions include whether mental health services in a state are easy to find, convenient, affordable and without waiting lists-as well as whether they are sensitive to cultural backgrounds. Open-ended questions ask for the "best thing" and "worst thing" about each state system, whether their mental health services emphasize recovery and what recovery means for each individual.

— Source: The National Alliance on Mental Illness

New data indicate that more than 13 million children are living in poverty, 22% of rural children and 25% of children living in central cities, according to a new report released by the Carsey Institute at the University of New Hampshire. The report, based on U.S. Census Bureau data, finds that on average, rates of child poverty are persistently higher in rural parts of the country relative to suburban areas and share similar rates with many central cities.

“Because poverty is closely linked to undesirable outcomes in areas such as health, education, emotional welfare, and delinquency, we take child poverty seriously as a measure of children’s well-being,” says report author Sarah Savage, a research assistant at the Carsey Institute and PhD candidate in sociology at the University of New Hampshire. The data are based on the official U.S. Office of Management and Budget poverty measure of $21,027 for a family of two adults and two children.

The Carsey report finds that in 17 states, particularly those in the South and Southwest, rural child poverty is higher than rates in both suburban and urban areas. In 2007, the rural child poverty rate in ranges from a low of just 7% in Connecticut to a high of 35% in Mississippi.

— Source: University of New Hampshire

Five years after Vermont allowed civil unions, the first study to examine the experience has found that legalized same-sex couple relationships appear to be longer-lasting than those without a legal status. The study was published in Developmental Psychology.

Sixty-five male and 138 female couples who entered into civil unions during the first year they were available were asked to provide information. They were compared with 23 male and 61 female couples not in civil unions and 55 heterosexual married couples who were related to the same-sex couples in civil unions.

In the study sample, same-sex couples not in civil unions ended 9.3% of their relationships whereas only 3.8% of same-sex couples in a civil union ended their relationships. Heterosexual married couples ended 2.7% of their relationships. The difference between the percentages of break-ups for same-sex civil union couples and heterosexual married couples were not statistically significant, thus demonstrating that legalized same-sex and heterosexual couples lasted longer than nonlegalized same-sex couples.

The study questioned all of the couples about relationship conflict, relationship satisfaction, commitment, intimacy and equality. Interestingly, researchers found that same-sex couples reported more positive relationship quality and less conflict than heterosexual married couples on several dimensions.

“In contrast to old myths about same-sex couples being deficient or less viable than male-female couples, this research project shows that same-sex partners who seek to legalize their relationships actually may be among the best functioning couples in this society,” says Robert-Jay Green, PhD, executive director of the Rockway Institute, a national center for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender research.

— Source: Alliant International University

A study led by researchers at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Boston College offers new insights into the specific components of emotional memories, suggesting that sleep plays a key role in determining what we remember and what we forget.

Reported in Psychological Science, the findings show that a period of slumber helps the brain selectively preserve and enhance those aspects of a memory that are of greatest emotional resonance, while at the same time diminishing the memory’s neutral background details.

The authors tested 88 study participants who were shown scenes that depicted either neutral subjects on a neutral background (a car parked on a street in front of shops) or negatively arousing subjects on a neutral background (a badly crashed car parked on a similar street). The participants were then tested on their memories of both the central objects in the pictures and the backgrounds in the scenes. In this way, memory could be compared for the emotional aspects of a scene (the crashed car) versus the nonemotional aspects of the scene (the street on which the car had crashed.)

Subjects were divided into three groups. The first group underwent memory testing after 12 hours spent awake during the daytime; the second group was tested after 12 nighttime hours, including their normal period of nighttime sleep; and the third baseline group was tested 30 minutes after viewing the images, in either the morning or evening.

The results revealed that study subjects who stayed awake all day largely forgot the entire negative scene they had seen with their memories of both the central objects and the backgrounds decaying at similar rates. However, among the individuals who were tested after a period of sleep, memory recall for the central negative objects (i.e., the smashed car) was preserved in detail.

“After an evening of sleep, the subjects remembered the emotional items [smashed car] as accurately as the subjects whose memories had been tested only 30 minutes after looking at the scenes,” explains study author Elizabeth Kensinger, PhD, an assistant professor in the College of Arts and Sciences at Boston College. “By contrast, sleep did little to preserve memory for the backgrounds [i.e., street scenes] and so memory for those elements reached a comparably low level after a night of sleep as it did after a day spent awake.”

— Source: Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center

A sudden and dramatic increase in pediatric suicides may reflect an emerging trend rather than a single-year anomaly. That’s the conclusion of new suicide research, conducted at The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital and published in a recent issue of The Journal of the American Medical Association.

Following a decade of steady decline, the suicide rate among U.S. youths younger than the age of 20 increased by 18% from 2003 to 2004—the largest single-year change in the pediatric suicide rate over the past 15 years. Although worrisome, the one-year spike observed in 2003 to 2004 does not necessarily reflect a changing trend. Therefore, researchers examined national data on youth suicide from 1996 to 2005 in order to determine whether the increase persisted from 2004 to 2005, the latest year for which data are available.

Researchers estimated the trend in suicide rates from 1996 to 2003 using log-linear regression. Using that trend line, they estimated the expected suicide rates in 2004 and 2005 and compared the expected number of deaths with the actual observed number of deaths. Researchers found that although the overall observed rate of suicide among 10 to 19 year olds decreased by about 5% between 2004 and 2005 (the year following the spike) both the 2004 and 2005 rates were still significantly greater than the expected rates, based on the 1996 to 2003 trend.

“The fact that this significant increase in pediatric suicides continued into 2005 implies that the alarming spike witnessed from 2003 to 2004 was more than just a single-year anomaly,” says Jeff Bridge, PhD, lead author and a principal investigator in The Research Institute at Nationwide Children’s Hospital. “We now need to consider the possibility that the increase is an indicator of an emerging public health crisis.”

— Source: Nationwide Children's Hospital

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) announced the award of 12 grants totaling more than $16 million over three years to support suicide prevention efforts undertaken by tribes/tribal organizations. This grant program is authorized under the Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act, which provides funding for programs to combat suicide.

SAMHSA Deputy Administrator Eric Broderick, DDS, MPH, made the announcement at the Interdepartmental Tribal Justice, Safety and Wellness Government-to-Government Consultation, Training and Technical Assistance Session. "As a result of the Garrett Lee Smith Memorial Act, SAMHSA works with state and local governments, communities and tribes/tribal organizations to stem the number of youth suicides in our country," said Broderick. "These new grantees will help fill a significant need in their communities."

Nationally, an estimated 900,000 youth had made a plan to commit suicide during their worst or most recent episode of major depression, and 712,000 attempted suicide during such an episode. The data are from SAMHSA's National Survey on Drug Use and Health, which asked youths aged 12 to 17 about symptoms of depression, including thoughts about death or suicide.

The total approximate amount for the grant award period, which ranges from one to three years, is $16 million. First-year funding totals nearly $6 million. Continuation of these awards is subject to both availability of funds and progress achieved by awardees. Additional grants will be awarded this year for suicide prevention efforts under the Garrett Lee Smith program.

— Source: Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration

Much can be learned from China’s culture according to says Deb Sellers, Kansas State University Research and Extension specialist on adult development and aging. “Exploring aging in China can offer ideas for America’s population,” she says. As a gerontologist curious about how Chinese families care for—and interact with—older adults, she traveled to China to attend the American Society on Aging’s seminar.

During the trip, Sellers observed cultural contrasts that could be applied in the United States:

In China, women are required to retire at age 55; men must retire at age 60. In jobs that require physical labor, women retire at 50 and men at 55. “Retiring older workers helps to create job opportunities for the growing population of about 1 million younger workers,” says Sellers, who also noted an apparent lack of discussion pertaining to the gender difference in the mandatory retirement ages.

Displaced workers are encouraged to enroll in low-cost educational opportunities ($8 tuition per semester) available at more than 26,000 senior universities, so they can explore and develop new interests to fill the remaining decades of their lives, she says. More than 47,000 recreation and activity centers also are available to serve older adults.

Long-term care is gaining attention in China, at least in part due to familial changes. There now are about 40,000 such institutions in China. An obvious difference from American facilities, however, is that retirement center staff may live at the retirement facility and are on-call.

Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) offers a holistic approach to wellness by addressing nutrition, lifestyle, emotion, physical activity, and mental fitness. “Prevention and wellness are emphasized,” says Sellers, who notes that the physical activity vital to a healthy lifestyle is part of everyday life there.

— Source: Kansas State University Research and Extension

Whether a family attends religious services has similar impact on a teen's grade point average as whether the student's parents earned a college degree, a University of Iowa study indicates.

Researchers found that on average, students whose parents received a four-year college degree average a GPA 0.12 higher than those whose parents only completed a high school education. Students who attend religious services weekly average a GPA 0.144 higher than those who never attend services, says Jennifer Glanville, a sociologist in the University of Iowa College of Liberal Arts and Sciences who led the study.

Glanville and colleagues from the University of Notre Dame analyzed data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, a nationally representative sample of 7th through 12th graders that began in 1994. Students from 132 schools in 80 communities participated.

The study confirmed four reasons church-going teens tend to have more success in school: they have regular contact with adults from various generations who serve as role models; their parents are more likely to communicate with their friends' parents; they develop friendships with peers who have similar norms and values; and they're more likely to participate in extracurricular activities.

"There are two directions you can go with this research," she says. "Some might say this suggests that parents should have their kids attend places of worship. Or, if we use it to help explain why religious participation has a positive effect on academics, parents who aren't interested in attending church can consider how to structure their kids' time to allow access to the same beneficial social networks and opportunities religious institutions provide."

— Source: University of Iowa Health Sciences

Younger service members and Reserve and National Guard combat personnel returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are at increased risk of new-onset heavy drinking, binge drinking, and other alcohol-related problems, according to a recent study in The Journal of the American Medical Association.

Isabel G. Jacobson, MPH, of the Naval Health Research Center in San Diego, and colleagues examined whether military deployment to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is associated with new-onset or changes in alcohol consumption, binge drinking behavior, and other alcohol-related problems. Data were derived from questionnaires completed by participants at the beginning of the and follow-up. After the researchers applied exclusion criteria, the analyses included 48,481 participants (active duty, n = 26,613; Reserve or National Guard, n = 21,868). Of these, 5,510 deployed with combat exposures, 5,661 deployed without combat exposures, and 37,310 did not deploy.

The researchers found that among Reserve or National Guard personnel who deployed with combat exposures the rate of new-onset heavy weekly drinking was 8.8%; the rate for new-onset binge drinking was 25.6%; and for new-onset alcohol-related problems, 7.1%. Among active-duty personnel, new-onset rates were 6.0%, 26.6%, and 4.8%, respectively. Among Reserve/Guard personnel, deployment with combat exposures was associated with increased odds of new onset of all three drinking outcomes compared with nondeployed personnel, with heavy weekly drinking (63%) and alcohol-related problems (63%) showing the strongest association.

Among active-duty personnel, those deployed with combat exposures were at increased odds (31%) of new-onset binge drinking at follow-up. Those born after 1980 were at 6.7 times increased odds of new-onset binge drinking and 4.7 times increased odds of new-onset alcohol-related problems. Those with PTSD and depression were at increased odds of new-onset and continued alcohol-related problems at follow-up.

“These results are the first to prospectively quantify changes in alcohol use in relation to recent combat deployments. Interventions should focus on at-risk groups, including Reserve/Guard personnel, younger individuals, and those with previous or existing mental health disorders,” the authors concluded.

— Source: American Medical Association

As students across the country return to school, school districts face an often complicated and confusing legal landscape on how to deal with cyber bullies in their schools, according to Todd DeMitchell, EdD, a professor of education, who studies school liability, adequate supervision, and responses to preventing bullying and cyber bullying from school administrators and state legislatures. In addition to his research in this area, DeMitchell has two decades of experience in K-12 as a teacher, principal, and superintendent.

According to DeMitchell, if a student is bullied at school or on the bus, the school can take action because the student is under the control of the school. “However, if the bullying occurs outside of school, the situation is more complicated since the evolution of face-to-face bullying to cyber-bullying tests the limits of whether a public school can institute discipline for acts—primarily speech—that occur away from school via the Internet,” DeMitchell says.

Cyber bullying conducted at school allows school authorities to more easily impose discipline. The use of school equipment to cyber bully also makes a stronger legal argument for action by the school. And if the student e-mails offensive speech to school or downloads it at school and then distributes it, the school is in an advantageous position regarding disciplining the student. However, speech created at home—such as the creation of a Web site—affords greater legal protection for cyber bullies.

“Unfortunately, the courts have not spoken with one voice on the issue of cyber speech or cyber-bullying,” DeMitchell says. “The problem with the approach that web speech created at home can—if accessed at school—become school speech that can be regulated is the very nature of the Internet. Once something is created and placed on the Internet, the author loses control over who can access the speech and where it can be accessed.”

Because of the unique problems presented by cyber-bullying, DeMitchell suggests that the approach to cyber-bullying be part of the overall approach to providing a safe school environment.

— Source: University of New Hampshire

A group at the University of Washington (UW) has developed software that for the first time enables deaf and hard-of-hearing Americans to use sign language over a mobile phone. This is the first time two-way real-time video communication has been demonstrated over cell phones in the United States. "A lot of people are excited about this," says principal investigator Eve Riskin, a UW professor of electrical engineering.

For mobile communication, deaf people now communicate by cell phone using text messages. "But the point is you want to be able to communicate in your native language," Riskin says. "For deaf people that's American Sign Language."

Low data transmission rates on U.S. cellular networks, combined with limited processing power on mobile devices, have so far prevented real-time video transmission with enough frames per second that it could be used to transmit sign language. The team tried different ways to get comprehensible sign language on low-resolution video. The current version of MobileASL uses a standard video compression tool to stay within the data transmission limit. The team developed a scheme to transmit the person's face and hands in high resolution, and the background in lower resolution.

Mobile video sign language won't be widely available until the service is provided through a commercial cell-phone manufacturer, Riskin says. The team has already been in discussion with a major cellular network provider that has expressed interest in the project.

— Source: University of Washington