Adolescent Medicine News

Short sleep duration, with and without self-reported insomnia, was predictive of elevated blood pressure and hypertension among adolescents, a speaker reported.

An increase in depressive symptoms was observed among U.S. teenagers without, rather than with, behavioral risk factors, underscoring the need for greater screening in this population, data show.

Teens spent an average of 1.5 hours on their smartphones during school hours, and one-quarter of them spent more than 2 hours using their phones at school, according to findings published in JAMA Pediatrics.

The approval of etanercept for juvenile idiopathic arthritis in 1999 heralded a new era for children with arthritis. However, despite subsequent approvals for JIA, many patients with other types of childhood arthritis remain without options.

Children with emotional or cognitive disabilities were more likely to report being suspended or expelled from school compared with children with physical disabilities or no disabilities, according to findings in Academic Pediatrics.

Suicide is one of the leading causes of death among youth in the United States, and pediatricians play an integral role in identifying patients who are at risk and connecting them to resources.

Although stimulant dispensing rates have rebounded to — or exceeded — pre-pandemic levels among girls, the dispensing rate among adolescent boys was almost 19% lower than it was before March 2020, according to study findings.

Teens with cancer who participated in family-centered advance care planning reported greater levels of pain, depression and anxiety after 12 months, according to results published in Pediatrics.

Nearly 70% of adolescents report having at least one social media account, including 63.8% of youth aged younger than 13 years, according to a report in Academic Pediatrics.