Health Problems Your Teen Might Encounter and How To Deal With Them

Health Problems Your Teen Might Encounter and How To Deal With Them

US teen pregnancy rate drops to record low due to "increased contraceptive use"

A precipitous drop in the US teenage pregnancy rate to record lows was driven by improved use of contraception, a new analysis from the Guttmacher Institute found.

“There was no significant change in adolescent sexual activity during this time period,” Dr Laura Lindberg, a principal research scientist with the Guttmacher Institute and the paper’s lead author, said in a statement. “Rather, our new data suggest that recent declines in teens’ risk of pregnancy – and in their pregnancy rates – are driven by increased contraceptive use.”

Linberg and her co-authors found that while teenage girls’ sexual activity remained constant from 2007 to 2012, the percentage of sexually active teens who used at least one type of birth control the last time they had sex increased significantly, rising from 78% to 86%.

The researchers found the use of all “highly effective methods”, like the birth control pill or IUD, increased from 2007 to 2009. There was a marginal significant increase in the use of the IUD or implant from 2007 to 2009 and in use of the pill overall. There were non-significant increases in condom use and withdrawal, while use of the ring or patch declined significantly over the 2007 to 2012 period.

The changes in contraceptive use resulted in a 28% decline in pregnancy risk index from 2007 to 2012. Not only did improvements in contraceptive use drive that entire decline, but they were also responsible for neutralizing a 6% rise in risk over the same period due to increased sexual activity among teens. The pregnancy risk index is a calculation that “summarizes the risk of pregnancy among all adolescent women, estimating the influence of both changes in the level of recent sexual activity and changes in the level of contraceptive risk”, according to the study.

In April, the Guttmacher Institute reported that the national pregnancy rate declined 23%from 2008 to 2011 for women aged 15 to 19, falling from a rate of 68.2 pregnancies per 1,000 women to 52.4. That means about 5% of teens became pregnant in 2011. It was the “lowest rate observed in the last four decades”, they said, with declines across all 50 states and racial and ethnic groups, though some disparities remained. In 2011, they found a rate of 31.3 births per 1,000 teen women, down from 40.2 in 2008, and 13.5 abortions per 1,000 teen women, down from 18.1 in 2008.

The new study used data from the National Survey of Family Growth, a survey conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on sexual activity, contraceptive use and contraceptive failures to estimate the pregnancy risk index for the years 2007, 2009 and 2012.

The authors noted it was important to ensure teenagers’ “access to comprehensive sexuality education that provides medically accurate information about contraception”. They wrote that the percentage of adolescents “who report receiving formal instruction about birth control has declined, while the share receiving only abstinence instruction has increased”. The American Academy of Pediatricians recently urged doctors to fill in the gaps of sexual health education with their patients. They noted that abstinence-heavy education is a concern for doctors when it comes to reducing sexually transmitted infections and unintended pregnancies, as those programs can exclude information about contraceptives.

The internet, the authors suggested, can offer new opportunities for teenagers looking for information on sexual health, and recommend further research to examine that hypothesis. A separate study from last year found a correlation between decline in transmission of sexually transmitted infections and access to high-speed internet.

“Policy discussions should focus on supporting teen contraceptive use generally, including ensuring access to a full range of contraceptive education, counseling and methods,” Heather Boonstra, the Guttmacher Institute’s director of public policy, said in the release.

The Guttmacher Institute’s study used data up until 2012, however, more recent data from the CDC’s Youth Risk Behavior Survey “shows sharp declines in sexual activity among high school students from 2013 to 2015 – after a long plateau from 2001 to 2013”, the authors wrote. “At this point, it is unclear whether these new data represent a new trend or are the result of other factors,” the authors wrote.

Another analysis from earlier this month found that millennials are having less sex than those in previous generations.

US teen pregnancy rate drops to record low due to "increased contraceptive use"

Did Teen Suicide Warnings About Antidepressants In fact Lead to Suicides To Enhance?

In what would be a tragic case of the law of unintended consequences, a new research claims that the really warnings about the suicide dangers to teens taking antidepressants could have contributed to a surge in attempted teen suicides.

The study, published this week in the journal BMJ, investigated outcomes soon after the US Foods and Drug Administration (FDA) started publicizing warnings of increased risk of suicidality with antidepressant use in youthful folks. The FDA warnings, which started in 2003, have been particularly related with modifications in antidepressant use, suicide attempts, and completed suicides among adolescents.

The examine tracked information derived from the virtual data warehouse of 11 overall health plans in the US Psychological Well being Research Network covering around two.5 million adolescents and young grownups. Its findings recommend that the FDA warnings about enhanced risk of suicide linked to antidepressants induced antidepressant use amid teens and young grownups to substantially drop after 2003. Concurrently, the number of attempted suicides between the identical age groups elevated.

“This was a massive worldwide event in terms of the mass media,” says Stephen Soumerai of the Harvard Health-related School, a co-writer of the study. “Many of the media reviews in fact emphasized an exaggeration of the warnings.” [reported by NPR, June 18, 2014]

Antidepressant use fell 31 % among adolescents and 24 percent amid youthful adults following the FDA warnings, according to the study. Suicide attempts increased by almost 22 percent amid adolescents and 33 percent between younger grownups in the very same time time period. Suicide attempts tracked in the study have been largely the result of drug overdoses.

“The warnings have been well-intentioned but individuals were concerned that the ferocity of the messages may well impact clinicians, dad and mom and younger folks in a way that would minimize required drugs,” Soumerai stated in a press briefing.

Not all professionals agree with the research team’s interpretations of the information.  An official from the National Institute of Mental Health advised NPR that there are other possible factors why antidepressant use fell, and it is also not achievable to recognize what percentage of the drug overdoses were intentional or accidental.

As with all cohort scientific studies, which track outcomes across large groups over time, it is impossible to ferret out each conceivable element that may possibly have influenced the outcomes. But the study’s outcomes, at minimum, suggest the chance that the warnings had been not communicated effectively and could have triggered an overreaction in the common media that influenced a lot of parents to pull their youngsters off antidepressants.

In an emailed statement to NPR, the FDA defended its decision to warn the public. “The FDA noticed an important danger signal with antidepressants and we put that details in the drug labels,” the agency said.

The examine was published June 18, 2014 in the journal BMJ.

You can locate David DiSalvo on Twitter @neuronarrative, and at his website The Everyday Brain. His most recent guide is Brain Changer: How Harnessing Your Brain’s Energy To Adapt Can Change Your Lifestyle.

Did Teen Suicide Warnings About Antidepressants In fact Lead to Suicides To Enhance?

Bucket-record teen reaches £2m for cancer charity

“Hi everyone, it’s Stephen here – still here and still fighting!!!” he wrote.

“Throughout the whole journey I’ve been realistic about my position and at my last post I genuinely thought I was a goner…. But hey, I’m still here!!

“Sunday morning my right lung collapsed: I had a full emergency team surrounding me and in all honesty was probably not too far from nearly leaving you all.

“I survived, but the following day I woke up and felt very weak – the worry was that whatever was left of my health would just continue to deteriorate.

“However, from that point on my recovery has been positive and quite unexpected.

“One doctor while seeing me even said how my medical notes and how I was actually doing didn’t quite seem to match up.

“The progress since has continued to be good but steady.

“I am still in a very vulnerable position.

“I am very limited in what I can do and am still permanently hooked up to oxygen.

“But I am in high spirits and blessed to have so much love and support around me.

“To get to see the million pound fund-raising target being reached was just phenomenal!”

Mr Sutton, from Burntwood, Staffordshire, added that he planned to take things day by day “but I am happy – and that’s the main thing!”

A host of celebrities have taken to Twitter to help the cause, posing for pictures with the hashtag thumbsupforstephen and holding signs urging the public to donate.

The teenager was diagnosed with what was initially bowel cancer, when he was 15.

Despite surgery, the aggressive cancer spread to different parts of his body and, after further treatment and operations, doctors concluded it was incurable.

Fighting the disease, Mr Sutton decided to set up a bucket-list of 46 things to do before he dies along with the fundraising campaign, setting an initial target of £10,000 before it was smashed by the huge number of public donations as publicity around his cause spread.

The campaign is also being backed by comedian Jason Manford, who said he had previously met the teenager at charity gigs.

Appearing on ITV’s Daybreak, Manford said he and others were inspired to get involved by the teenager’s positive attitude as he strove to make the best of his situation.

He said: “That’s what got their imaginations going really. It was that he just had such joy for life.

“He wasn’t bitter about leaving the party early, he was just happy that he was ever invited at all. He’s 19, which is no age at all.

“There’s so many things he’s not going to be able to do, but there’s something he said on his Facebook page and on his website – he said that life shouldn’t be measured in time, it should be measured in achievements you’ve accomplished and I thought ‘This guy’s 19′, and it really got to me.”

Mr Sutton set up his charity fund-raising website and blog on Facebook in January last year to keep people up to date with his progress.

On Tuesday he wrote that his condition had worsened, adding “unfortunately I haven’t got much time left”.

Thanking family, friends and fundraisers, he said: “That’s it from me. But life has been good. Very good.”

Siobhan Dunn, chief executive of the Teenage Cancer Trust, praised the inspiring teenager and ambassador for the charity.

She said: “I’ve had the privilege of meeting him and his positivity is always remembered by all that meet him or hear him speak.

“Stephen is making the biggest possible difference to Teenage Cancer Trust and the young people who need our help.”

Speaking previously, Mr Sutton said he disliked the term “dying from my cancer – I am living with my cancer, despite it being there”.

His bucket-list included things like hugging an elephant, crowd-surfing in a rubber dinghy, playing the drums at a Wembley cup final, getting a tattoo and appearing on BBC drama Doctors.

Manford tweeted a picture of himself visiting Mr Sutton in hospital yesterday.

He wrote on Twitter: “Amazing @-StephensStory is up & chatting after his brush with death. He’s so happy that we are close to £2million!”

To donate, visit www.justgiving.com/Stephen-Sutton-TCT

Bucket-record teen reaches £2m for cancer charity

Bucket-list teen reaches £2m for cancer charity

“Hi everyone, it’s Stephen here – still here and still fighting!!!” he wrote.

“Throughout the whole journey I’ve been realistic about my position and at my last post I genuinely thought I was a goner…. But hey, I’m still here!!

“Sunday morning my right lung collapsed: I had a full emergency team surrounding me and in all honesty was probably not too far from nearly leaving you all.

“I survived, but the following day I woke up and felt very weak – the worry was that whatever was left of my health would just continue to deteriorate.

“However, from that point on my recovery has been positive and quite unexpected.

“One doctor while seeing me even said how my medical notes and how I was actually doing didn’t quite seem to match up.

“The progress since has continued to be good but steady.

“I am still in a very vulnerable position.

“I am very limited in what I can do and am still permanently hooked up to oxygen.

“But I am in high spirits and blessed to have so much love and support around me.

“To get to see the million pound fund-raising target being reached was just phenomenal!”

Mr Sutton, from Burntwood, Staffordshire, added that he planned to take things day by day “but I am happy – and that’s the main thing!”

A host of celebrities have taken to Twitter to help the cause, posing for pictures with the hashtag thumbsupforstephen and holding signs urging the public to donate.

The teenager was diagnosed with what was initially bowel cancer, when he was 15.

Despite surgery, the aggressive cancer spread to different parts of his body and, after further treatment and operations, doctors concluded it was incurable.

Fighting the disease, Mr Sutton decided to set up a bucket-list of 46 things to do before he dies along with the fundraising campaign, setting an initial target of £10,000 before it was smashed by the huge number of public donations as publicity around his cause spread.

The campaign is also being backed by comedian Jason Manford, who said he had previously met the teenager at charity gigs.

Appearing on ITV’s Daybreak, Manford said he and others were inspired to get involved by the teenager’s positive attitude as he strove to make the best of his situation.

He said: “That’s what got their imaginations going really. It was that he just had such joy for life.

“He wasn’t bitter about leaving the party early, he was just happy that he was ever invited at all. He’s 19, which is no age at all.

“There’s so many things he’s not going to be able to do, but there’s something he said on his Facebook page and on his website – he said that life shouldn’t be measured in time, it should be measured in achievements you’ve accomplished and I thought ‘This guy’s 19′, and it really got to me.”

Mr Sutton set up his charity fund-raising website and blog on Facebook in January last year to keep people up to date with his progress.

On Tuesday he wrote that his condition had worsened, adding “unfortunately I haven’t got much time left”.

Thanking family, friends and fundraisers, he said: “That’s it from me. But life has been good. Very good.”

Siobhan Dunn, chief executive of the Teenage Cancer Trust, praised the inspiring teenager and ambassador for the charity.

She said: “I’ve had the privilege of meeting him and his positivity is always remembered by all that meet him or hear him speak.

“Stephen is making the biggest possible difference to Teenage Cancer Trust and the young people who need our help.”

Speaking previously, Mr Sutton said he disliked the term “dying from my cancer – I am living with my cancer, despite it being there”.

His bucket-list included things like hugging an elephant, crowd-surfing in a rubber dinghy, playing the drums at a Wembley cup final, getting a tattoo and appearing on BBC drama Doctors.

Manford tweeted a picture of himself visiting Mr Sutton in hospital yesterday.

He wrote on Twitter: “Amazing @-StephensStory is up & chatting after his brush with death. He’s so happy that we are close to £2million!”

To donate, visit www.justgiving.com/Stephen-Sutton-TCT

Bucket-list teen reaches £2m for cancer charity