Getting Rid of Guns in the Home could Prevent Teen Suicides

Those states with the most guns also have more suicides, according to a new study by the Harvard School of Public Health. The same report also indicates that removing guns from homes where adolescents live could have an impact on preventing suicides among teenagers.

Dr. Matthew Miller and his team analyzed data from the Center of Disease Control collected in 2001. At that time, about one-third of all American households had guns. Dr. Miller calculated the relationship between gun ownership and suicide and found that twice as many people killed themselves in the fifteen states with the highest level of gun ownership. He took out risk factors such as poverty, urbanization, chemical abuse, unemployment and mental illness when he made his calculations.

"Removing firearms may be especially effective in reducing the risk of suicide among adolescents and other potentially impulsive members of a home," Dr. Miller wrote in the April issue of the Journal of Trauma.

Congressional Study Indicates Abstinent-Only Programs Don’t Work

A study commissioned by Congress found that students who took part in sexual abstinence programs were just as likely to have sex as those who did not. They also started sex at about the same age (14.9 years) and had about the same number of partners as those who did not attend such classes.

The study by Mathematica Policy Research Inc. polled over 2000 students from both urban and rural areas who attended one of four sexual abstinence programs in 1999 and a control group who had no such classes. The average age of the students was 12 years old. Then Mathematica did a follow-up survey in 2006 and found that half of the abstinence program students and half from the control remained abstinent. The researchers also found that the programs had no effect on the use of condoms.

The federal government spends over $176 million every year on abstinence-until-marriage programs.

Girls Who Mature Early More Likely to Have Sex & Do Drugs

Girls who mature early and who have romantic partners at least two years older are at higher risk for sex and drug use, according to a new study performed at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Researchers analyzed data from 4000 adolescents under age 14 years who participated in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health. The girls who matured earlier than their peers and who had older romantic partners were more likely to engage in risky behaviors such as sexual intercourse and substance abuse. There were not enough boys with older partners to include in the study.

Professor Carolyn Halpern said that while "parents of all teenagers have a responsibility for talking to their children and guiding them through romantic relationships and the risks of drug use... parents of girls who reach puberty ahead of their peers and who have an older boyfriend should take special interest."

This study appears in the March 2007 issue of Prevention Science.

Study Suggests More Screening For Dating Violence Needed

A new study from Brown University Medical School suggests that child and adolescent psychiatrists should screen for dating violence as a way to help victims recover and to treat perpetrators.

Dating violence is very common among teenagers. One-half of child and adolescent psychiatrists reported cases of it last year. Research indicates that about one in four female adolescents experience physical and/or sexual violence from a dating partner every year. Yet only 21 percent of psychiatrists actually screen for it.

"Screening is the first step in identification, diagnosis and proper treatment,"said Dr. Larry K. Brown, lead author of the study. "Screening will lead to a reduction in further dating violence and proper treatments."

This study appears in the April issue of the Journal of Interpersonal Violence.

Almost Half of College-Aged Women At Risk for Sexually-Transmitted Cancer

Forty-five percent of American women ages 20 to 24 years carry a sexually transmitted virus that leads to cervical cancer, according to a new study by the Center for Disease Control. The CDC recommends that all girls and women ages nine to 26 years receive a new vaccine that protects against two virus strains that cause 70% of all cervical cancer cases.

Dr. Eileen Dunne, lead author of the study, said that about 20 million Americans have some form of human papillomavirus (HPV). This percentage translates to 27% of all American women. The new CDC study found HPV is most common in the youngest female group surveyed: ages 14 to 24 year-olds.

Merck Pharmaceutical Company's new vaccine, Gardasil, was approved in June 2006. Some states including Texas are making the vaccine available through public health services and schools.

The CDC study appears in the March 2007 issue of the Journal of American Medical Association.