Mental Health

A Texas court case involving a custody dispute over a young child who may identify as transgender has ignited a national debate about the appropriate course of pediatric treatment, with the state’s governor calling for an investigation into the case and one legislator proposing a bill that would prohibit the use of pubertal blockers for minors.

NEW ORLEANS — Counties with higher levels of poverty have higher levels of pediatric and adolescent suicide, according to research presented at the AAP National Conference & Exhibition. The rate of suicide by firearm also increased as poverty levels increased, researchers found.

NEW ORLEANS — Children who experience febrile seizures following vaccination have similar developmental and behavioral outcomes compared with both children who had febrile seizures that did not occur after vaccination and those who never had a febrile seizure, according to research presented at the AAP National Conference & Exhibition.

I did my internal medicine residency at Yale New Haven Hospital in the years immediately before the advent of protease inhibitors would change the face of ART. In addition to caring for many young gay men with AIDS, I saw the side of the epidemic that even today remains relatively hidden in the United States, and is operative throughout much of sub-Saharan Africa: young women — often black — who presented late in the disease, having been infected by boyfriends or husbands. I was on call when one of my favorite patients, Shirley B., was admitted to die, and the team paged me to let me know so I could see her. I’ll never forget their kindness in doing that and my visit to her room. These experiences solidified not only my interest in ID but in advancing women’s reproductive health and autonomy related to ID and HIV prevention. Vaginal health? Female-controlled prevention methods? These were not sexy concepts that attracted big names during my subsequent training and early research career. Luckily, through persistence and commitment and probably some measure of stubborn cluelessness, I connected with some brave visionary mentors who believed there was a future in this arena and who themselves had battled for sexual and reproductive health — women, LGBT people, others not always at the proverbial table when funding or policy priorities are set. The rest is my personal history, and I know that only in ID would I have been able to accomplish any of it.

Children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders who exhibit obsessive-compulsive disorder behaviors had significantly lower scores for OCD behaviors at 16 weeks when taking fluoxetine compared with placebo, according to findings published in JAMA. However, in prespecified analyses that accounted for several variables, the difference between the groups was nonsignificant.

Between 1991 and 2017, nearly one in five high school students reported suicidal ideation, and more than one in 10 had a plan for suicide, according to research published in Pediatrics. Although researchers observed an overall downward trend in suicidal ideation and plans during the study period, they noted a rise in ideation and attempts among black adolescents.

An updated policy statement and a technical report issued by the AAP highlighted the need for increased involvement among pediatricians in their patients’ mental health care and increased mental health care training in medical education programs.

Between 2009 and 2017, approximately one in six children aged 3 to 17 years in the United States had a diagnosed developmental disability, according to updated prevalence estimates published in Pediatrics. Researchers noted increases specifically in the prevalence of ADHD, autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disability.

Poison control center calls for suspected suicide-related pediatric self-poisonings often involve over-the-counter, or OTC, medications, including analgesics and antihistamines, according to research published in Clinical Toxicology.

SAN DIEGO — In a video interview, Jack Drescher, MD, clinical professor of psychiatry at Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons, talked about his presentation on the controversies surrounding treatment of transgender children and adolescents.