Pediatrics News

Interventions are needed to address the interrupted psychosocial and psychological developments associated with cancer treatment and late effects among survivors of childhood cancer, according to a research paper published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Methylphenidate for children and amphetamines for adults were the preferred first-choice medications for the short-term treatment of ADHD, according to results from a network meta-analysis and systematic review.

Adolescents who identify as a sexual minority made up almost one-third of first-time, court-involved, nonincarcerated youth, researchers reported. Depression, self-harm and alcohol and drug use are also more frequently reported among the cohort, according to recently published study results.

Patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma who experienced a childhood trauma appeared to be at increased risk for anxiety and depression, according to study findings.

The prevalence of autism spectrum disorder in the general population has been reported at 0.76%, but a study published in Pediatrics suggests that 7% of infants born preterm have ASD.

Exploratory study results demonstrated that a machine-learning-assisted software system that runs on Google Glass, paired with a smartphone app, helped children with autism understand the emotions conveyed in other’s facial expressions.

Teenagers with elevated levels of psychotic-like experiences while engaging in a reward processing task showed differential activation in frontostriatal brain areas compared with control adolescents, data published in JAMA Psychiatry revealed.

Using substance abuse and anxiety assessments at the enrollment of collaborative care treatment for depression can help identify teenagers with depression at risk for treatment failure, findings published in Journal of Clinical Psychiatry suggest.

Maternal prenatal stress was linked with socio-emotional development in the child, with a more robust effect size seen in prenatal depression than anxiety, study findings published in Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry reported.

An electroencephalogram, or EEG — a low-cost, easy-to-use tool to measure brain electrical activity — may be able to predict future development of autism spectrum disorder in children as early as 3 months of age, according to a study published in Scientific Reports.