Adolescents
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Are autistic behaviours a trait or a state of anorexia nervosa?
Anorexia nervosa (AN) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD) seem to co-occur more frequently than would be expected by chance.1,2 Yet because most studies investigating the nature of this co-occurrence have used a retrospective design, where the data are prone to recall bias, we don’t know whether the elevation of autistic traits in AN is present from childhood or rather from AN onset.
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Utilization of peer-supported youth hotlines is on the rise
New data suggest that there has been a significant increase in the use of a peer-supported youth hotline between 2010 (~8,000 annual contacts) and 2016 (>12,000 annual contacts). Berit Kerner and colleagues evaluated >67,000 contacts made to a hotline based in Los Angeles, USA.
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A machine learning approach identifies unique predictors of borderline personality disorder
Researchers in the USA have identified critical predictors of borderline personality disorder (BPD) in late adolescence, using a machine learning approach. Joseph Beeney and colleagues harnessed data from a large, prospective, longitudinal dataset of >2,400 girls who were evaluated yearly for various clinical, psychosocial and demographic factors.
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Depressed mothers and their offspring differ in terms of health risk profiles and allostatic load
Allostatic load is essentially the “wear and tear” that accumulates in the body in individuals exposed to chronic stress. Because some patients with psychiatric disorders have a shorter lifespan than their healthy counterparts,1 some researchers have suggested that there might be a link between disorders such as depression and increased allostatic load.
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Gender identity is not as simple as ABC(D)
Alexandra Potter and colleagues in the USA have used data collected as part of the longitudinal Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) US cohort study to examine associations between diverse gender experiences and mental health.
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Do sex differences affect ASD symptom severity scores?
Researchers in the USA have investigated whether standard diagnostic assessments for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are biased against girls.
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Developments in Eating Disorders Research
As everyone’s thoughts are dominated by the impact of COVID-19 on mental health and wellbeing, it seems pertinent to start by thinking how people with or at risk of eating disorders may have been affected. Research suggests that the impacts differ according to the type of eating disorder concerns and behaviours.
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Interventions for reducing loneliness seem effective in young people
Meta-analyses of interventions aimed at reducing loneliness among young people are distinctly lacking in the field. Now, Alice Eccles and Pamela Qualter have addressed this gap by compiling a review for Child and Adolescent Mental Health on interventions to reduce loneliness in young people.
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Young people’s ‘neural fingerprints’ might permit a precision-medicine approach to depression
Precision medicine has been discussed in medical research since the late 1990’s. Only recently, however, has this concept aroused interest and inspired relevant research in psychiatry, particularly in adolescents.
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Treatment-seeking for eating disorders among adolescents: Implications for mental health literacy campaigns
Eating disorders commonly occur during adolescence, however, only a minority (10-25%) of affected adolescents receive appropriate treatment.
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